CEAS Alumnus and Raw Thrills Co-Founder is UC s 2016 Rising Star

To receive the Rising Star award, Andy Eloff has demonstrated significant professional achievement in his field of endeavor, and continued service and involvement with the university and community as a UC alumnus.

Since his early elementary school days and the advent of video games in the 1970’s, Eloff has driven his fascination for gaming technology with full-speed. He remembers the days when young kids were taught basic programming in school and dreaming of obtaining a career in video games.

After he received his BS in electrical engineering from the

CEAS Department of Electrical Engineering and Computing Systems

, and MS in electrical engineering from Northwestern University, his dream became a reality when he began working at Atari Games, the classic arcade gaming corporation. Eloff developed sound systems for their classic arcade games including Mortal Kombat and NFL Blitz. The four years of experience as an audio development engineer gave Eloff the breadth of knowledge about the gaming industry to start his own operation.

Eloff lived in Tokyo, Japan working at a consumer electronics manufacturer, developing audio circuit designs for Lexus sound systems for one year. This experience significantly enhanced his understanding of product development and production, prepping his desire to start his own gaming company.

Since its founding in 2001,

Raw Thrills

—co-founded by Eloff and veteran game designer, Eugene Jarvis—has grossed more than $2B. Major collaborations have been made with movie studies including The Walt Disney Corporation, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers.

“Raw Thrills has partnered with several iconic video game companies including Activision, Bandai Namco and Konami. My favorite collaborations thus far have been the Jurassic Park Arcade, as well as the World’s Largest PAC-MAN, which was made in partnership with Bandai Namco for PAC-MAN’s 35th anniversary,” states Eloff.

As co-founder, vice presidents and chief operating officer (COO), Eloff’s main duties at Raw Thrills are to oversee game licensing, video game design, development and manufacturing. “Above all else, my main job responsibility to make sure that all Raw Thrills employees are successful,” says Eloff.

Today Raw Thrills localizes and exports to major markets in China, Russia, Great Britain & Japan. To have reached such monumental moments in his professional journey requires fierce perseverance and determination. Eloff offers his sound advice to not only up-and-coming engineers but young professionals and entrepreneurs, “I think the absolute most important quality you can possess is to choose a career that you are passionate about, pursue it full-heartedly and be earnest about it.”

“One of the most valuable assets of my electrical engineering Bachelor of Science degree from UC’s CEAS,” claims Eloff, “was taking advantage of the ample opportunities to solve many problems through my coursework and to push my into new areas of thinking. Even co-op challenged me to master my problem-solving skills and to develop a perpetual sense of enthusiasm and curiosity for the unknown. It’s what you do between the lines, behind the scenes and in your spare time that make you an engineer.”

Andrew Eloff, UC’s 2016 Rising Star, holds over 15 patents in audio engineering & gaming technology.

Select to watch his tribute video here.