Welcome to Jack Mostow’s
Homepage
(Last updated 7/24/2016)
Project:
Helping kids learn to read, by getting computers to listen to them read aloud.
Emeritus
Research Professor, Robotics, Machine Learning, Language Technologies, Human-Computer Interaction
·
Team Leader, CMU RoboTutor Global Learning XPRIZE Team
·
Director, Project
LISTEN: A Reading Tutor that Listens
·
Steering Committee, Program
in Interdisciplinary Educational Research
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Contact
Information:
Mail: RI-NSH 3113,
Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Email: mostow at
cs.cmu.edu (preferred means of contact)
Phone: (412) 268-1330
FAX: (412) 268-6436
Administrative assistant: Lynnetta Miller, 268-8126
Research Interests:
I am now leading Carnegie Mellon’s RoboTutor team competing for the Global Learning XPRIZE, expanding my previous work on Project LISTEN’s Reading Tutor that listens to children read aloud. The Reading Tutor adapts automated speech recognition to analyze oral reading. The Reading Tutor responds with spoken and graphical assistance modeled in part after expert reading teachers, but adapted to the strengths and limitations of the technology. Experimental use of the Reading Tutor in elementary school classrooms improved reading proficiency. My previous work in artificial intelligence included machine learning, automated replay of design plans, and discovery of search heuristics.
RoboTutor offers exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary work in intelligent tutors, educational data mining, graphic design, speech technologies, cognitive and motivational psychology, human-computer interaction, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
Biographical Sketch:
A.B. cum laude in
Applied Mathematics (1974),
Ph.D. in Computer Science (1981) and NSF Graduate Fellow,
Dr. Mostow’s research interests in artificial
intelligence have included speech, machine learning, and design. After research
and faculty positions at Stanford, Information Sciences Institute, and
Dr. Mostow was Program Co-chair of the Fifteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI98), and has served as an editor of Machine Learning Journal and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
In 2003, Dr. Mostow was awarded The Allen Newell Medal for Research Excellence.
In 2010, he chaired the 10th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems and was elected President of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society.
Click here for Dr. Mostow’s vita and list of publications.
Favorite Quotes:
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. – Yogi Berra
You can observe a lot by watching. – Yogi Berra
Wherever you go, there you are. – Buckeroo Banzai
Access to all the books in the Library of Congress is of little use if you cannot read. [F. Cairncross, The Death of Distance, p. 253.]
After all my time here, I’ve yet to see any problem, however complicated,
which when you looked at it the right way didn’t become still more complicated.
[spoken by Arne Viken, character in Call Me Joe,
by Poul Anderson, 1957.]
Claims about amplified responses to new media are often exaggerated. Our research is a reminder that we can cry when we read, and we can be bored in a virtual world.... Ultimately, it’s the pictures in our heads that matter, not the ones on the screen. [B. Reeves & C. Nass, The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places, p. 252.]
In August,
2012, I bicycled
from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC, joining
the week-long final segment of Hazon's (www.hazon.org) Cross USA Ride to help raise environmental awareness, have fun, get
exercise, and meet other Jewish cyclists.
The money raised from this ride supported Hazon’s
year-round work promoting sustainable food and other worthy innovative
projects.
Day job; Sir
Joseph in HMS Pinafore; Lord in Iolanthe; Mikado
in Mikado
March 11-20, 2011: Duke of
Plaza-Toro in Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic operetta Gondoliers; click
here for video clip
Oct. 31, 2010: sang in Zamir Chorale’s 50th Anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall in NYC
Oct.
15-24, 2010: double bill of 1-act operas:
· Gianni Schicchi (sung in English),
by Puccini (his only comedy)
· Trial by Jury, by Gilbert & Sullivan
Pittsburgh
City Paper: “The performances
are energetic, the voices robust and the orchestra skilled… crowd-pleasing
comedy.”
March 2007: Jack earns good review (http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/07051/763392-325.stm) as
Major-General Stanley in Pittsburgh Savoyards (www.pittsburghsavoyards.org)’s
production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic operetta Pirates of Penzance.
June 27-30, 2004: The Eleventh Annual Meeting of
the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading provided many photo-ops, including
this panorama of attendees enjoying an outdoor cafe on a houseboat-lined canal
in beautiful Amsterdam.
March 5-21, 2004: Jack plays the Duke in Pittsburgh Savoyards’ Patience.
Click
here for details.
October 10-25, 2003: Jack stars as Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., in
His admiring "sisters, cousins, and aunts" included Melody, ...,
Emily, Janet, and friend Sara. (Click here or on photo
for a short videoclip of them.)
July, 2003: AIED2003 in
October 3-4, 2002: Jack enjoys 2-day, 115-mile bicycle ride with Governor
Mark Schweiker...
... and about 800 other riders.
For 14 highlight photos, see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=1~FQQ4aBru.cJVX94m3Uq30rSv1z8OK0QKX8zi.itY5gpHBVcR9uwowF0NCWO6ecDe.
For 63 photos (out of 6 rolls I shot), see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=1~FQQ4aBru.cKEq/kxwuuU7JVN.ji.fmt.1O7bat8dGWhYVH/7yUIl/Pwr031MN.6o
July, 2001: Jack attends 25th reunion of 1976 BikeCentennial
bicycle trip across the
For summer 1976 photos (mostly BikeCentennial),
see photos\1976_summer_photos_including_BikeCentennial.
The following links into http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?
stopped working. You can try logging in
and using the keys below.
For BikeCentennial 25th reunion pictures, see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=2879849160450001.
To browse all 266 Cycle
For 60 of the best, see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=9744746040430800.
January 26 - February 11, 2001: Jack and Melody perform in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Gondoliers.
December 29, 2000: Cross-country skiing in Laurel Ridge State Park.
December 16, 2000: Emily helps Janet lead songs:
Labor
Day, 2000: Jack welcomes Vice President Al Gore to Pittsburgh
(Photo
by Jack’s wife Janet, who snapped it as Mr. Gore raced down the parade route
shaking lots of hands, including Jack’s. We were lucky that the picture
came out at all, let alone in focus and with large enough portions of both
faces to be recognizable. At the time, Janet thought she’d only taken a
picture of Al Gore’s belly. But the picture itself is evidence of its authenticity
-- any fake picture would look much better!)
Click here to
see summer 2000 family photos
Click here to see a montage of photos from ITS’2000 in Montreal taken by Dr. Mostow using a Visor eyemodule(TM).
May 22, 2000: Daughter Emily holds up diploma in
"Manners" earned by our dog Skippy (wearing graduation cap) at
March 3-19, 2000: performed with daughter Melody in
Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic operetta HMS Pinafore with the Pittsburgh Savoyards.
See glowing reviews in Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette ("A
highlight is the wonderful a cappella harmony shared by Gross, Jack Mostow and
Todd Farwell on A British Tar.") and
In
Pittsburgh. (Photos below by castmate
Tanya Veverka.)
