Follow the path of two USC computer engineering students as they move from undergraduates to founding a company through USC's technology incubator. After mixed success with various products and services, the company creates a software product called SpeedTree, which is used by hundreds of game developers including EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Bungie, Microsoft, and Sony. SpeedTree then migrates to the visual effects industry and is used in more than 50 feature films and 30 television productions, earning its developers a technical Academy Award. Engineering and career lessons learned over their 15-year entrepreneurial journey will be shared from the perspective of someone who was right where you are just 20 short years ago. Chris King helped found Interactive Data Visualization Inc. and developed SpeedTree, software that helps create the rich environments in movies and video games. Speedtree's original success in video games was with the company's work on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and later it debuted in the film industry with Avatar. King and his colleagues have gone on to receive a Technical Achievement Award at the February 2015 Academy Awards, and continue to develop, support, and promote their software throughout the industry. Talk sponsored by

• ACM Students
• Women in Computing