On Wednesday, February 16, students, faculty and staff, and members of the general public are invited to watch IBM’s powerful Watson supercomputer compete on Jeopardy! against the show’s two all-time champs, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. IBM and UConn computing experts will also be on hand to answer questions and discuss the advances in computing technology.

The program will be broadcast live in CLAS Room 108 at the Storrs campus, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. View the program flier here. The room offers limited seating; free tickets may be obtained from Noreen Wall in room 220 Castleman Building or by e-mail at noreen@engr.uconn.edu.

The Watson computer is revolutionary in that it has been designed to understand natural language (in English), with all of the language’s complex allusions, references and intended meanings – and to answer questions with rapid-fire speed. Watson is equipped with a warm, human-sounding voice and powered by 10 racks of IBM servers.

The two human competitors, Jennings and Rutter, are the top champs ever to play Jeopardy! Jennings won 74 consecutive games during the 2004-2005 season, earning him more than $2.5 million. Rutter won the highest cumulative amount ever by a single Jeopardy! player, earning more than $3.25 million.

The grand prize purse for the contest is $1 million, with second place earning $300,000 and third place $200,000. IBM has stated that 100 percent of Watson’s earnings will be donated to charity.

Learn more about Watson here.