Welcome to Jack Mostow's Homepage
(Last updated 10/4/2007)
Project:
Helping kids learn to read, by getting computers to listen to them read aloud.
Also
playing Major-General Stanley in Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta Pirates of Penzance through March 4, 2007, at
Pittsburgh Savoyards' new location near I-279 exit 12. See www.pittsburghsavoyards.org
for details and review at http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/07051/763392-325.stm.
Director, Project LISTEN ("Literacy
Innovation that Speech Technology ENables")
Research Professor
Robotics Institute
Machine Learning Department
Language Technologies Institute
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Program in Interdisciplinary Educational Research
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Research Interests:
My current interest is using computers to listen to children read aloud. The Reading Tutor adapts automated speech recognition to analyze oral reading. The Reading Tutor responds with spoken and graphical assistance modelled in part after expert reading teachers, but adapted to the strengths and limitations of the technology. Experimental use of the Reading Tutor in elementary school classrooms has produced dramatic gains in reading comprehension. My previous work in artificial intelligence included machine learning, automated replay of design plans, and discovery of search heuristics.
Project LISTEN offers exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research in speech technologies, cognitive and motivational psychology, human-computer interaction, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, graphic design, and of course reading.
Biographical
Sketch:
A.B. cum laude in Applied Mathematics (1974),
Ph.D. in Computer Science (1981) and NSF Graduate Fellow,
Dr. Mostow's research interests in artificial intelligence have included
speech, machine learning, and design. After research and faculty positions at
Stanford, Information Sciences Institute, and
Dr. Mostow was Program Co-chair of the Fifteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI98), and has served as an editor of Machine Learning Journal and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
In 2003, Dr. Mostow was awarded The Allen Newell Medal for Research Excellence.
Representative
Publications (Click
here for Dr. Mostow's vita and a more complete list of publications):
[CSMP 2007] Mostow, J., & Beck, J. (2007). When the
Rubber Meets the Road: Lessons from the
In-School Adventures of an Automated Reading Tutor that Listens. In B.
Schneider & S.-K. McDonald (Eds.), Conceptualizing Scale-Up:
Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 2, pp. 183-200).
[NLE 2006] Mostow, J., and Beck, J.
Some useful tactics to modify, map, and mine data from intelligent tutors. Natural Language Engineering (Special Issue
on Educational Applications), 12(2), 195-208.
[TICL questions] Mostow,
J., Beck, J., Bey, J., Cuneo, A., Sison, J., Tobin, B., & Valeri, J.
(2004). Using automated questions to assess reading comprehension, vocabulary,
and effects of tutorial interventions. Technology, Instruction, Cognition
and Learning, 2, 97-134.
[TICL fluency] Beck, J. E., Jia, P., & Mostow, J. Automatically assessing oral reading fluency in a computer tutor that listens (2004). Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning, 2, 61-81.
[JECR 2003] Mostow, J., Aist, G., Burkhead, P., Corbett, A., Cuneo, A.,
Eitelman, S., Huang, C., Junker, B., Sklar, M. B., & Tobin, B. (2003).
Evaluation of an automated Reading Tutor that listens: Comparison to
human tutoring and classroom instruction. Journal of Educational Computing
Research, 29(1), 61-117.
[SMIE 2000] Mostow, J. and Aist, G. Evaluating Tutors that Listen:
An Overview of Project LISTEN. In K. Forbus and P. Feltovich (Eds.) Smart
Machines in Education. MIT/AAAI Press, 2001.
[CALICO99] Mostow, J. and Aist, G. Giving Help and Praise in a Reading
Tutor with Imperfect Listening – Because Automated Speech Recognition Means
Never Being Able to Say You’re Certain. CALICO Journal16:3,
407-424. Special issue (M. Holland, Ed.), Tutors that Listen:
Speech recognition for Language Learning, 1999.
[USPTO 99] Mostow, J. and Aist, G.
Patent and Trademark Office.
[AAAI97] J. Mostow and G. Aist. The Sounds of Silence: Towards Automated
Evaluation of Student Learning in a
[AAAI 94] J. Mostow, S. Roth, A. G. Hauptmann, and M. Kane. A Prototype
Reading Coach that Listens. Proceedings of the Twelfth National Conference
on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-94), American Association for Artificial
Intelligence, Seattle, WA, August 1994, pp. 785-792. Recipient of the AAAI-94
Outstanding Paper Award. Download Postscript
file.
Contact
Information:
Dr. Jack Mostow
RI-NSH 4213,
Email (preferred means of contact): mostow@cs.cmu.edu
Phone: (412) 268-1330
FAX: 268-6436
Administrative assistant: Virginia Arrington, 268-8126, NSH 4219
Favorite Quotes:
Claims about amplified responses to new media are often exaggerated. Our research is a reminder that we can cry when we read, and we can be bored in a virtual world.... Ultimately, it's the pictures in our heads that matter, not the ones on the screen. [B. Reeves & C. Nass, The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places, p. 252.]
Access to all the books in the Library of Congress is of little use if you cannot read. [F. Cairncross, The Death of Distance, p. 253.]
After all my time here, I've yet to see any problem, however complicated,
which when you looked at it the right way didn't become still more complicated.
[spoken by Arne Viken, character in Call Me Joe, by Poul Anderson,
1957.]
Personal
Stuff:
June 27-30, 2004: The Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Society for the
Scientific Study of
March 5-21, 2004: Jack plays the Duke in
October 10-25, 2003: Jack stars as Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., in
His admiring "sisters, cousins, and aunts" included Melody, ...,
Emily, Janet, and friend Sara. (Click here or on photo
for a short videoclip of them.)
July, 2003: AIED2003 in
October 3-4, 2002: Jack enjoys 2-day, 115-mile bicycle ride with
Governor Mark Schweiker...
... and about 800 other riders.
For 14 highlight photos, see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=1~FQQ4aBru.cJVX94m3Uq30rSv1z8OK0QKX8zi.itY5gpHBVcR9uwowF0NCWO6ecDe.
For 63 photos (out of 6 rolls I shot), see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=1~FQQ4aBru.cKEq/kxwuuU7JVN.ji.fmt.1O7bat8dGWhYVH/7yUIl/Pwr031MN.6o
July, 2001: Jack attends 25th reunion of 1976 BikeCentennial
bicycle trip across the
For summer 1976 photos (mostly BikeCentennial), see photos\1976_summer_photos_including_BikeCentennial.
The following links into http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?
stopped working. You can try logging in
and using the keys below.
For BikeCentennial 25th reunion pictures, see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=2879849160450001.
To browse all 266 Cycle
For 60 of the best, see http://photomail.photoworks.com/sharing/album.asp?Key=9744746040430800.
January 26 - February 11, 2001: Jack and Melody perform in Gilbert & Sullivan's Gondoliers.
December 29, 2000: Cross-country skiing in Laurel Ridge State Park.
December 16, 2000: Emily helps Janet lead songs:
Labor
Day, 2000: Jack welcomes Vice President Al Gore to Pittsburgh
(Photo
by Jack's wife Janet, who snapped it as Mr. Gore raced down the parade route
shaking lots of hands, including Jack's. We were lucky that the picture
came out at all, let alone in focus and with large enough portions of both
faces to be recognizable. At the time, Janet thought she'd only taken a
picture of Al Gore's belly. But the picture itself is evidence of its
authenticity -- any fake picture would look much better!)
Click here to
see summer 2000 family photos
Click here to see a montage of photos from ITS'2000 in Montreal taken by Dr. Mostow using a Visor eyemodule(TM).
May 22, 2000: Daughter Emily holds up diploma in
"Manners" earned by our dog Skippy (wearing graduation cap) at
March 3-19, 2000: performed with daughter Melody in
Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta HMS Pinafore with the Pittsburgh Savoyards.
See glowing reviews in Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette ("A
highlight is the wonderful a cappella harmony shared by Gross, Jack Mostow and
Todd Farwell on A British Tar.") and In Pittsburgh.
(Photos below by castmate Tanya Veverka.)
