Supercomputer Watson pounds Pitt, CMU teams in 'Jeopardy!' match
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All University of Pittsburgh team members, from left, Danielle Arbogast, Richard Kester, Brian Sisco and CMU team members, from far left, Connor Fallon, Will Zhang and Erik Schmidt can do is to wait for their turns while IBM Watson, center, "answers" the questions during a Jeopardy exhibition game at CMU on Wednesday.This is the first time students will have the chance to face Watson's analytical capabilities.
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The trash talking started early, with deans from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh praising their students' intellectual firepower as they prepared to take on the Watson supercomputer in a game of "Jeopardy!"
But by the time Double Jeopardy rolled around, university loyalties were no more -- the capacity crowd at CMU's 450-seat McConomy Auditorium was cheering any time a human managed to even beat Watson to the buzzer.
In the end, the newfangled computer delivered an old-fashioned beating, winning the match with $52,199 over Pitt's $12,937 and CMU's $7,463.
The event marked the first time that Watson, who defeated two all-time "Jeopardy!" champions in a three-day televised competition in February, visited a college campus. It was also Watson's first match against teams of college students, said David Ferrucci, IBM's lead investigator for Watson.
PG VIDEO: IBM'S WATSON TAKES ON PITT, CMU STUDENTS IN 'JEOPARDY'The "Jeopardy!" match with students capped a day of scholarly discussion about Watson at both campuses, involving technical symposiums, a keynote lecture and a question-and-answer session involving experts from IBM, Pitt and CMU.
IBM chose Pittsburgh first because of CMU's contributions to the development of Watson, led by computer science professor Eric Nyberg.
"This is the first time we're bringing together Watson, IBM scientists, faculty and students to prepare for the next evolution in computing," said Bernie Meyerson, vice president of innovation and university programs for IBM. "Our hope is that seeing Watson first hand will spark innovation from the leaders of tomorrow."
For the college students who went up against Watson, the result was frustrating but not surprising.
"We went into it expecting to only get one or two questions right," said Erik Schmidt, a CMU junior majoring in electrical and computer engineering.
First Published March 31, 2011 12:00 am
