Heroes of #STEMtember: Atari, Math, and Trek dreams turning to reality with Kudo Tsunoda

Tara Grumm, online marketing manager, Microsoft Citizenship

As part of our ongoing series this month on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers, we had the pleasure of sitting down with the Creative Director of Kinect for Xbox, Kudo Tsunoda (pictured left). Not only is Kudo a rock star in the gaming world, but we learned that he’s a STEM hero in his own right! I would cheer if my little one grew up loving math like Kudo does. It’s an impressive skill to love such a challenging subject but my Dad always reminded me that I should embrace how Math is an exact science and I came to learn that he had a great point. If you think that the people who crunch those sophisticated formulas, solve complex problems and write code for those amazing video games spend their days just sitting in their dark offices drinking Mountain Dew… you are sorely mistaken. When you stretch your creativity and work on groundbreaking inventions like Kinect, you get invited to appear on a late night talk show.

Editors Note: We have declared this month #STEMtember to build awareness of the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Earlier in the month we released some research into how parents and students view STEM education and we’re publishing profiles of people with some of the coolest STEM jobs. Keep an eye on the blog or follow #STEMtember on Twitter, discuss on Facebook, or you can read all this month’s post by clicking on the tag #STEMtember on this blog.