Jim De Piante, IBM project manager on the Watson supercomputer project, will speak about the development of Watson and the Jeopardy! gameshow challenge on Nov. 3.

Watson, named after IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson, was built by a team of IBM researchers who set out to accomplish a grand challenge — build a computing system that rivals a human’s ability to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence. The TV show Jeopardy! provided the ultimate challenge because the game’s clues involve analyzing subtle meaning, irony, riddles and other complexities in which humans excel and computers traditionally do not.

Watson passed its first test on Jeopardy! in February, beating the show's two greatest champions in a televised exhibition match, but the real test will be in applying the underlying data management and analytics technology in government and business.

De Piante will share background and insider stories on the development of Watson. He will also put Watson in historical context alongside similar events used to showcase technological marvels such as Watson.

The talk, sponsored by the School of Information Studies, will be held in the Life Sciences Complex Auditorium (001) at 6 p.m. on Nov. 3. It is free and open to the public.

Website: http://ischool.syr.edu/newsroom/?recid=1204

Contact Person: J.D. Ross
School of Information Studies
443-3094
rossjd@syr.edu

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