Epic Games awards first round of academic Unreal Dev Grants

The latest of round of Unreal Dev Grants has been awarded, this time to people that are helping the engine’s users learn more about the tech and how to use it.

Continuing the $5m programme that was launched earlier this year, a total of $75,000 was divided between 10 individuals, many of whom are from academic institutes around the world.

Each has already proven their ability at creating educational content and learning resources for Unreal Engine 4, and the grants will help with their next projects.

The Unreal Dev Grants were awarded to the following academics:

• Kyle Ackerman of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts for his work expanding the institute’s Unreal Engine curriculum
• James Butcher of Staffordshire University for his ongoing work with the university’s Epic Games Centre, as well as his contributions to the development of games, online training and books
• Aram Cookson from Savannah College of Art & Design, who is completing a new book that can be used for Unreal Engine university courses
• Christina Lee from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, who is working with colleagues to publish a secondary education curriculum for UE to free online learning portals
• Dr Cynthia Marcello of the State University of New York for her UE4 quest-based learning curriculum, which will be hosted and freely available at Unreal Engine’s website.

A number of Unreal Engine users also received grants:

• Ellhoussine Mehnik has created a range of free UE4 templates, and is currently working with Epic on new learning resources
• Rama, one of UE4’s earliest users, has been building the Victory BP Library plug-in, which makes over 100 nodes available for devs to use with Blueprints.
• Marcos Romero is building learning resources for Blueprint, and maintains a blog about the engine’s scripting tool
• Kitatus Studios’ Ryan Shah has written numerous UE4 books and sample projects, both through his own website and Amazon
• Tesla Dev runs a YouTube channel full of UE4 tutorials as a full-time career. He is also collaborating on UE4 books.

"The talented educators and developers recognised today are receiving the first Unreal Dev Grants for education thanks to their tireless contributions to the UE4 community," said Luis Cataldi, education evangelist at Epic Games. 

"I’ve personally seen the fruits of their efforts and generosity of spirit make significant differences for those seeking to master our tools and technology. We are excited to recognise these leaders for helping to bring up the next generation of UE4 developers."