We're from the town with that Super Bowl team

Pittsburgh was quite a bit more festive this time last year than it is now, given that the Steelers were on the verge of winning that elusive fifth Super Bowl ring. The team finished a disappointing 8-8 this season and didn't even reach the playoffs.

Well, at least Carnegie Mellon will be represented at Super Bowl XLI in Miami this weekend. Quasi, the cartoonish, interactive humanoid robot created by graduate students in the university's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in 2005, has been invited to ESPN Magazine's Super Bowl Party beginning at 7 tonight. Quasi will be a host on the red carpet, where it will help interview some of the 30,000 celebrities and athletes on the guest list for the $1 million party called "The NEXT Big Experience." Check your local listings for the broadcast times on ESPN. 

Quasi was built by a 10-person interdisciplinary student team called "Interbots," which is now the name of an ETC spinoff company. Team members had backgrounds in computer science, industrial design, special effects, digital media, theater and psychology. Seema Patel, a member of the student team that developed the robot, will be traveling with Quasi to Miami. This is the second national appearance for Quasi in the last three months. It appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" in early November. For more on Interbots and Quasi, click here.

Not that Quasi has been Carnegie Mellon's only Super Bowl connection. During its broadcast of Super Bowl XXXV, CBS rolled out a new technology called "Eye Vision", developed by Carnegie Mellon computer vision expert Takeo Kanade. Eye Vision involves shooting multiple video images of an event, then streaming those combined images by computer in a way that makes viewers feel as though they are part of the action.

We also can't forget Sanford Rivers, former assistant vice president for enrollment, who was the head linesman at Super Bowl XXXIII. Rivers left his post with the university and as an NFL official when he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board by Gov. Ed Rendell.

Speaking of officiating, you might want to avoid that topic if you happen to be in Seattle this weekend. We understand it's still something of a sore subject.

Jonathan Potts