By the early 2000s, animation had come a long way from the days of Felix the Cat and Walt Disney. Computer-rendered images replaced hand-drawn characters. And the animation process, once the sole domain of creatives, became increasingly technical and mathematical. While stirring more dynamic visuals, the shift created long, laborious projects and ignited industry-wide hunger for a more natural creative process for animation.

DreamWorks Animation, the Universal Pictures–owned studio behind celebrated hits like Shrek and Madagascar, tapped Alex Powell to spearhead a fix. Powell, a Georgia Tech GVU alum (GVU merged into the Institute for People and Technology in 2023) and his wife Bridgette (Wiley) Powell, are both graduates of the College of Computing majoring in computer science.

Omer Inan, Regents’ Entrepreneur and Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chaired Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, won an Academy Award (Oscar) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work on a sub-miniature lavalier microphone. Inan is a faculty member of the Institute for People and Technology.

Read more about Georgia Tech alumni accomplishments in Georgia Tech’s Alumni Magazine, Spring 2025.