Where What If Becomes What's Next

Carnegie Mellon University
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Welcome to Season 3 of WHERE WHAT IF BECOMES WHAT’S NEXT. As Carnegie Mellon University celebrates its 125th anniversary, we’re spotlighting 15 CMU inventions that changed the world. From the origins of AI and robotics to innovations in the arts and sciences, join us as we trace the journey from “what if” to “what’s next.” With host Randy Scott, every other Thursday we’re going behind the scenes with CMU makers and visionaries to bring you the stories you may know and the ones you won't believe. Subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. For more info: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast.

  1. Down the Rabbit Hole: How Alice Turned Computer Coding Into a Wonderland

    5h ago

    Down the Rabbit Hole: How Alice Turned Computer Coding Into a Wonderland

    Thirty years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch asked a simple question: What if anyone could learn to program a computer? Not just computer scientists, not just engineers. What if kids could learn coding the same way they learned to tell stories, build worlds, and play games? In this episode we explore one of Carnegie Mellon's most enduring innovations: Alice, the drag-and-drop program that has introduced millions of students to coding through storytelling.  As CMU marks its 125th anniversary and Alice turns 30, guest Melanie Lam — Director of the Alice Project at CMU's Entertainment Technology Center — traces the software's remarkable journey. Created by legendary professor Randy Pausch, Alice began in 1995 as a Virtual Reality prototyping tool created for Pausch’s famed Building Virtual Worlds course. Lam shares how she first encountered Alice at CMU as a journalism graduate with no coding background, used it to tell a moving story in her very first week, and went on to design games at Activision and Electronic Arts before returning to steward Pausch's legacy back at CMU with the Alice Project. The conversation follows Alice's evolution from CD-ROMs to free online access to Sims 2 character integration for better storytelling. Currently, Lam is leading a major interface update and exploring ways AI can make Alice even more accessible for students. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast. Explore more Alice Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture

    30 min
  2. Encore: Curtain Up - What’s Next for Theatre Arts

    Jun 11

    Encore: Curtain Up - What’s Next for Theatre Arts

    Greatness is inevitable when focus marries passion, and theatre arts educator Freddie Hendricks lives by, and teaches, that mantra to his students.   On June 7, Carnegie Mellon University and the Tony Awards named Hendricks the winner of the 2026 Excellence in Theatre Education Award — the honor that, for over a decade, has celebrated K–12 theatre educators who set the standard for the profession while transforming the lives of their students. A teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts in Georgia, Hendricks has spent more than 30 years using theatre to spark greatness, creativity, confidence, and leadership in young people.  It was also a great year for Carnegie Mellon University at the 79th Tony Awards. CMU alumni earned a record-breaking 15 Tony nominations —  the most they have ever received in a single year.   To honor Hendricks’ award and Carnegie Mellon's historic nominations, we're releasing an encore performance of one of our favorite Season 2 episodes: "Curtain Up: What's Next for Theatre Arts."  What role should new technologies – such as robots, artificial intelligence and virtual reality – play in theatre arts education? And how are educators preparing their students for the future? We spoke with theatre visionary Kyle Haden, the Senior Associate Head at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama.  And we heard from the 2022 winner of the Excellence in Theatre Education Award – Roshunda Jones-Koumba, Theatre Director at George Washington Carver Magnet School in Houston. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast. Explore more  Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama

    32 min
  3. Bold Builds: How a Class Project Sparked World-Changing Startups

    May 28

    Bold Builds: How a Class Project Sparked World-Changing Startups

    What if a successful startup began with a collaborative class project instead of a business plan? For CMU alum Shanna Tellerman that’s exactly what happened, and it sparked an entrepreneurial career that has reshaped how we design and experience spaces. In this episode, Tellerman shares her journey from a fine arts undergraduate, to a CMU technology masters, to a pioneer at the intersection of design and technology. Inspired by a virtual reality course taught by legendary CMU professor Randy Pausch, Tellerman discovered how to blend her passions for art, math, and science and use a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to starting and building companies. This foundational experience led her to start her first company, Sim Ops Studios, a spin-out from a CMU class project. Sim Ops utilized video game technology to help train firefighters before pivoting to a technology that enabled users to create and play browser-based 3D games.  The conversation explores Tellerman's diverse career, highlighting her time as a partner at Google Ventures and her subsequent creation of Modsy, an innovative 3D home design platform later acquired by home-building giant, Lennar. She outlines her core entrepreneurial philosophy, emphasizing the power of interdisciplinary teams, relentless customer focus, and the importance of avoiding distractions. Looking ahead, Tellerman discusses her latest startup, which leverages artificial intelligence to automate the tedious aspects of architecture and design software, and offers valuable advice for the next generation of innovators searching for their own paths.  Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast. Explore more  Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship CMU.edu/125 CMU.edu/WhatsNextPodcast

    27 min
  4. The Shape of Everyday Life: How Carnegie Mellon Revolutionized Industrial Design

    May 13

    The Shape of Everyday Life: How Carnegie Mellon Revolutionized Industrial Design

    What if the objects around you weren't just built, but carefully designed to shape how you live?  In this episode, we trace the origins of industrial design from Pittsburgh's factory floors to the iconic products defining modern life — and explore how Carnegie Mellon University – and its faculty and alumni – have been at the center of it all. In 1934, Carnegie Tech launched the first degree-granting program in industrial design in the United States — sparked by a student petition. That revolutionary curriculum, grounded in real manufacturing visits and human-centered thinking, would shape generations of designers and transform everyday objects from clunky contraptions into intuitive, beautiful tools. We're joined by Rachel Delphia, curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art and CMU alum, who walks us through the program's beginnings, the remarkable legacy of silversmith-turned-designer and CMU professor Peter Muller-Munk, the story of Maude Bowers — the program's very first graduate — and the design thinking behind icons such as the revolutionary cordless Black & Decker Dustbuster, also created by a CMU alum. Then, CMU alum and founder of Bould Design, Fred Bould, joins to discuss how CMU's design philosophy shaped his work on the Nest Thermostat and dozens of other products ranging from the GoPro Camera to a wearable breast pump to a humane chicken coop. He also shares his vision for where AI and sustainability are taking the field over the next decade. Good design, it turns out, doesn't just make things look better — it makes life work better for the consumer – and for humanity.  Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast. Explore more Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk Bould Design The Normandie Water Pitcher The Nest Thermostat Origin Story - WWIBWN Episode #4

    39 min
  5. Making Machines Make Music

    Apr 29

    Making Machines Make Music

    What happens when a computer scientist is also a trumpet player?  Meet Roger Dannenberg — CMU professor, pioneer of computer music, and co-creator of Audacity — one of the most widely used free audio editing tools in the world.  In this episode, drawing from CMU’s Oral History Archives, Roger reflects on a career spent bridging two worlds. From building a custom computer in 1984 to accompany live musicians in real time, to developing Nyquist, a programming language built just for music, to developing one of the most popular programs for teaching music to students, Roger’s work has redefined how computers play with and play music. He also shares the unexpected origin story of Audacity, born not from a product vision, but from a research project on "query by humming."  And he reveals how early gesture research in his CMU lab — including pinch-to-zoom — foreshadowed the touchscreen interactions we use every day.  Roger also looks ahead, imagining a future where AI becomes a true musical collaborator, as he acknowledges how far computers still have to go in understanding the importance of rhythm, anticipation and surprise in music. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast.

    28 min
  6. Designing for the Planet: The Clever Thermostat and the Odorless Food Recycler

    Apr 16

    Designing for the Planet: The Clever Thermostat and the Odorless Food Recycler

    What if the secret to saving the planet was hiding in your hallway and under your kitchen sink?  Matt Rogers, Carnegie Mellon University electrical and computer engineering alumnus, joins us to trace a remarkable career path — from engineering iPods and iPhones at Apple to co-founding Nest, the learning thermostat now in millions of homes, to his current venture Mill, a food waste technology company. Matt shares how his CMU robotics training shaped his instinct for systems thinking, and how working alongside Tony Fadell at Apple taught him the power of focus and user-centric design. He explains how Nest's learning thermostat has saved more than 100 billion kilowatt hours of energy worldwide — and how the same design philosophy (make the right choice, the easy choice) now drives Mill's odorless, AI-powered trash can that dehydrates food waste overnight and turns it into “rocket fuel” for the garden and the food chain (including backyard chickens).  Matt makes the case that profitability and planetary impact aren't just compatible — they need to be inseparable.  Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast.

    34 min
  7. Watching the Universe Change: A New Era in Astronomy Begins

    Apr 1

    Watching the Universe Change: A New Era in Astronomy Begins

    The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is now operational, and humanity's view of the universe will never be the same.   In this episode, we return to Carnegie Mellon University’s Rachel Mandelbaum, professor and head of the physics department – and a key architect of the observatory's data infrastructure — to hear what's happened since the revolutionary telescope first opened its eye to the sky. Mandelbaum walks us through the observatory's first scientific data release, the launch of its public alert system, and the successful measurement of gravitational lensing using early commissioning data. She explains how CMU and the LINCC Frameworks team are building the software tools that will allow scientists worldwide to make sense of up to 10 million nightly cosmic alerts. And we discuss the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), the observatory’s decade-long mission to track 40 billion celestial objects that will essentially create a 10-year movie of our universe. In this episode, you’ll learn: How the Rubin Observatory acts as a time machine for light from billions of years ago; the role of "alert brokers" in processing the 10 million nightly cosmic events the Observatory will track; and why understanding dark energy could be as transformative as the discovery of quantum mechanics. ResourcesLearn more about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

    31 min
  8. The Birth of the Hashtag: How a Simple Symbol Changed the World

    Mar 18

    The Birth of the Hashtag: How a Simple Symbol Changed the World

    In 2007, an unused key on the phone keypad became the internet's most powerful organizing tool. In this episode, we sit down with Chris Messina, the Carnegie Mellon University alumnus who invented the hashtag – now used more than three billion times a day – and famously gave it away for free. Messina shares the fascinating journey of the hashtag, from its roots in early "nerd centers" like his BarCamp meetup to its rejection by Twitter’s founders as "too nerdy." You’ll hear how a 2007 wildfire in San Diego turned the symbol into a life-saving tool for citizen journalism, ultimately forcing tech giants to embrace it. The conversation explores the hashtag's evolution from a simple metadata tag to a catalyst for global social movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. Messina reflects on his principled decision to forego intellectual property rights, ensuring the hashtag remained free for the world to use. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast.

    28 min
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About

Welcome to Season 3 of WHERE WHAT IF BECOMES WHAT’S NEXT. As Carnegie Mellon University celebrates its 125th anniversary, we’re spotlighting 15 CMU inventions that changed the world. From the origins of AI and robotics to innovations in the arts and sciences, join us as we trace the journey from “what if” to “what’s next.” With host Randy Scott, every other Thursday we’re going behind the scenes with CMU makers and visionaries to bring you the stories you may know and the ones you won't believe. Subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. For more info: cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast.

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