Pat Healy came to Pitt planning to study neuroscience. But as a sophomore, he worked on a project developing a video game to teach lower-income parents brain development. The project sparked his curiosity. What else, he wondered, could video games do?
Healy spent the rest of his undergraduate career answering that question (and he continues to explore it as a PhD candidate in the School of Computing and Information).
The unique capabilities of video games generated collaborations with students and faculty from across the university. The humanities, in particular, provided surprisingly fertile ground. (One of Healy’s three bachelor’s degrees is in philosophy.)
He worked with graduate students in the English department on an interactive fiction project, an experimental philosophy game centered on the #MeToo movement. He helped design a Pokemon: Go–style augmented-reality game for parents to play with kids. “I’ve really been fueled by the fact that every field could be helped by having someone with technical skills,” says Healy.
As an ambassador of gamification, Healy founded games-edu, a club connecting students and faculty to develop games across disciplines. The club encapsulates Healy’s central career goal: creating games that educate, initiate important conversations, and improve people’s lives.
