Epic Games Bolsters Unreal Engine Use In Education With $75,000 In Grants

Epic Games has selected 10 individuals in the education sector to receive $75,000 each in Unreal Dev Grants. It's the first round of funding to academic and educational recipients, with the grants intended for developers working on "promising early-stage projects." Those who receive funding can use the money however they wish -- there are no strings attached, Epic Games says.

"The talented educators and developers recognized 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 recognize these leaders for helping to bring up the next generation of UE4 developers."


These are all hand-selected recipients with a proven track records of building educational content for Unreal Engine 4, and who are also actively developing new material to benefit the community at large.

For example, Aram Cookson, a game development professor at Savannah College of Art & Design, is completely a new book that can be used for Unreal Engine university courses, while Elhoussine Mehnik, who previously released a wide variety of free UE4 templates to the community, is working on new learning resources in collaboration with Epic.

Epic launched its $5 million Unreal Dev Grants program in February of this year. Since then, more than $450,000 has been doled out to UE4 developers of all sizes and backgrounds to fund games across various platforms, along with VR projects, visualizations, film, and learning materials.