The InterACT center, which began in 2004 as a joint program of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science and its counterpart at the University of Karlsruhe, has expanded its global reach with the addition of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Representatives of Carnegie Mellon, Karlsruhe and HKUST signed a three-year collaborative agreement in Hong Kong on Feb. 1.

"Now, InterACT is a worldwide center, providing greater access for students in an area of rapid economic growth," said its director, Alex Waibel, professor, Language Technologies Institute. "The Asian market is one that is particularly ripe for the the multi-modal, multi-lingual language technologies that InterACT is pioneering."

InterACT, or the International Center for Advanced Communications Technologies, will continue its ground-breaking research on multi-modal communication, speech, pervasive computing and both human-human and human-computer interaction, as well as immersing students in multinational and multicultural research teams.

"It will be an evolving partnership that serves as the model of future partnerships for all universities- with each partner enjoying administrative autonomy while benefiting from the cross-fertilization of ideas, joint efforts and collective support," said Paul Chu, president of HKUST.