IBM Watson University Challenge

IBMs Watson Symposium and Challenge was designed to highlight the technologies in Big Blues question-answer computer system and to discuss how the use of advanced analytics will change the way the world does business. IBM also demonstrated Watson’s question-answer capabilities, using once again the TV game show Jeopardy! to show off the computers prowess. The demonstration pitted HBS and MIT students against Watson. Here are some photos from the IBM Watson event.

Meet IBM’s Watson, a supercomputer with the capability to understand human language, analyze data and learn correlations between data. This is Watson’s avatar.

Speakers at the IBM Watson University Symposium and Challenge included, from left to right: Eric Brynjolfsson from MIT, Andrew McAfee from MIT, Alfred Spector from Google, Rod Brooks from MIT and David Ferrucci from IBM.

Bernie Meyerson, vice president of innovation and academic programs at IBM, addresses students at Harvard Business School.

IBM’s Dave Ferrucci, lead researcher on the Watson project, gives a keynote speech at Harvard Business School.

MIT Sloan students Gautham Iyer, Ari Oxman and RJ Andrews, from left to right, prepare to challenge Harvard Business School and IBM Watson in a Jeopardy! exhibition match by quizzing each other on recent questions from the game show. Watson’s advanced analytics capabilities can sort through the equivalent of 200 million pages of data to uncover an answer in 3 seconds.

HBS and MIT Sloan student teams see if they have what it takes to outsmart Watson in an exhibition game of Jeopardy!

An anxious and enthusiastic crowd, including many of the students’ classmates, watch in anticipation.

Watson and student teams from HBS and MIT Sloan ponder the correct answer.

The HBS team, from left to right: Jonas Peter Akins, Jayanth Iyengar and Genevieve Sheehan.

The MIT Sloan team, from left to right: RJ Andrews, Gautham Iyer and Ari Oxman.