Carnegie Mellon University
February 14, 2011

Media Advisory: Carnegie Mellon and IBM To Host "Jeopardy!" Viewing Party

CMU Faculty, Students Helped IBM Create Jeopardy-playing "Watson" Computer

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Contact:  Byron Spice / 412-268-9068 (office) / 412-559-8501 (mobile) / bspice@cs.cmu.edu

Event: Carnegie Mellon University and IBM will host a viewing party to celebrate the final "Jeopardy!" episode featuring IBM's new "Watson" computing system competing against Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Eric Nyberg, professor in Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute, and graduate students Nico Schlaefer and Hideki Shima worked with IBM on the development of Watson. 
     
The Feb. 14-16 episodes of Jeopardy! that feature Watson are the culmination of four years of work by IBM's Watson project team and its academic collaborators. During this event, local IBM executives will be on hand to meet with students, talk about the technology and share in this historic moment with the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs. Once everyone knows if Watson wins or loses, Nyberg and others will be available to comment.

When: Doors open at 5 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 16, with remarks by Nyberg at 6:30 p.m. followed by the Jeopardy! broadcast at 7 p.m.

Where: Rashid Auditorium, 4401 Gates and Hillman centers, Carnegie Mellon University

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