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Carnegie Mellon U Taps Private Partner for Machine Learning Research

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 02/19/14

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has entered into a five-year, $10 million agreement with a private partner to research machine learning and interface technology in an effort to improve personalized user experiences.

As part of the partnership, dubbed Project InMind, Yahoo! will give CMU researchers access to a mobile toolkit designed for easy experimentation with the company's real-time data services.

"The mobile toolkit serves as the infrastructure for a living laboratory for researchers to explore new approaches to understanding human behavior by using machine learning algorithms to more accurately predict user needs and intentions," according to a CMU news release. "It is also expected to enable the development of new personalization techniques and interfaces to provide a more compelling user experience."

"The InMind program provides unique new opportunities for the outstanding faculty and students at CMU to partner with Yahoo and its talented scientists and engineers to potentially further the frontiers of mobile applications and technologies," said CMU President Subra Suresh, in a prepared statement. "This partnership is a clear demonstration, in the tradition of CMU, of how scholarly scientific research combined with industry relevance and perspectives could advance technologies that have a global social impact."

Project InMind will also create a new fellowship program at CMU, sponsored by Yahoo!, providing financial and research support for computer science faculty and students. Disciplines sponsored by the fellowship will include machine learning, human-computer interaction, mobile technology, natural language processing, novel interaction techniques and personalization.

"This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our students and faculty to work directly with a team of leading-edge researchers from Yahoo Labs on technologies that could benefit hundreds of millions of mobile users," said Randal E. Bryant, CMU professor and dean of the School of Computer Science, in a prepared statement. "The overall commitment in this new partnership is a testament to our shared desire to advance the science of machine learning, user interfaces, and mobile technologies."