The Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. and Carnegie Mellon University today announced the establishment of the Microsoft® Entertainment and Technology Diversity Scholarship, a scholarship for graduate study at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon. The initiative seeks to reward the innovative work by minorities and women who are pursuing careers in entertainment technology as graphic artists, game designers and computer programmers.

“We are delighted and proud to provide talented women and minority students with this exciting opportunity to learn about digital entertainment at a world-class institution,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes the Xbox 360™ system. “Microsoft remains a strong advocate of higher education. The Microsoft Entertainment and Technology Diversity Scholarship allows young adults to reach their potential by enabling them to further cultivate their artistic and technical talents.”

The Carnegie Mellon ETC offers the world’s only master of entertainment technology (MET) degree, a unique program that combines fine arts with computer science to enable students to learn the processes, resources and insight for storytelling and entertainment in a digital medium.