Carnegie Software Partners Formed to Collaborate with Carnegie Mellon on Defense, Intelligence, Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Contracts

Byron SpiceFriday, October 17, 2003

PITTSBURGH, PA. - Carnegie Software Partners LLC, a new Carnegie Mellon University spin-off company, has been launched to commercialize technology developed by researchers at the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon. This technology will be applied in the defense, intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement sectors.

Carnegie Software Partners' work will be focused on advanced data fusion, information retrieval, and analytical processes, including real-time multi-dimensional exact and approximate matching, abstract situation representation, hypothesis management, and novelty detection. These technologies can enable government organizations to efficiently monitor or detect patterns of novel activity in streaming data or large data sets drawn from multiple sources.

Carnegie Software Partners has licensed an innovative multi-dimensional matching engine that is based on algorithms developed by researchers at the Language Technologies Institute. The Carnegie Mellon technology, called the iX Intelligent Matcher, is a breakthrough in real-time exact and approximate matching within very large data streams. It is currently being used on a program sponsored by the Advanced Research and Development Agency (ARDA) to explore new approaches to novel intelligence detection.

"Carnegie Software Partners will develop Carnegie Mellon technologies further in order to address information processing challenges faced by defense, intelligence, and homeland security organizations," said Christina Gabriel, Vice Provost and Chief Technology Officer of Carnegie Mellon University. "We are pleased to see the formation of companies like Carnegie Software Partners because they can extend the reach and impact of technologies developed at the University."

Professor Jaime Carbonell, Allen Newell Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon, is the primary technical advisor to Carnegie Software Partners. Dr. Carbonell's research interests span several areas of artificial intelligence, including: machine learning, data mining, automated planning, natural language processing, machine translation, case-based reasoning, information retrieval, automated text summarization and digital libraries.

"Carnegie Software Partners will expand the range of opportunities that the Language Technologies Institute (LTI) can pursue" said Carbonell. "We are collaborating to bid on contracts in which LTI will develop new algorithms and Carnegie Software Partners will embed and integrate these technologies in multiple realistic settings."

Carnegie Software Partners' founder and Chief Executive Officer is Jane Kirkland. Jane was a partner in the Cleveland/Pittsburgh Office of McKinsey & Company and has been involved with several early-stage technology companies as an investor, consultant, and board member. "My discussions with senior government officials in the defense, homeland security and law enforcement sectors have convinced me that there is strong demand for technology developed at Carnegie Mellon, and there is an opportunity to bridge the gap between university research and customer application. We are in discussions with many organizations who are interested in working with a firm that can translate advanced R&D to applications in the field."

About Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon is a national research university of about 7,500 students and 3,000 faculty, research and administrative staff. The institution was founded in 1900 in Pittsburgh by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who wrote the time-honored words, "My heart is in the work," when he donated the funds to create Carnegie Technical Schools. Carnegie Mellon's position of leadership in the arts and in technology is unusual in higher education today. The institution's prominence in the arts dates back to 1917 when it awarded the first undergraduate degree in drama. And it has become a national leader in technological fields such as computer science, robotics and engineering. The university is a diverse blend of academic disciplines, including nationally recognized programs in cognitive psychology, management and public policy, writing and rhetoric, applied history, philosophy and biological sciences. Carnegie Mellon is recognized as a pioneer in the uses of computing in education. Its "Andrew" computing network, named for benefactors Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, is among the most advanced on any campus today. For more information, visit www.cmu.edu.

About Carnegie Software Partners

Carnegie Software Partners, LLC commercializes advanced software technology from the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University for application in the defense, intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement markets. Carnegie Software Partners has licensed a patent-pending matching technology developed by researchers from the Language Technologies Institute and is actively involved in projects to further develop and apply this technology. For more information, visit www.carnegiesoft.com.

For More Information

Byron Spice | 412-268-9068 | bspice@cs.cmu.edu