Scott M. Stevens Research Professor, Entertainment Technology Center & Senior Systems Scientist, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891 Office: 1-412-268-7796 Email:

Most applications fail to take full advantage of the information bandwidth, much less the capabilities of a multimedia, digital video and audio environment. To achieve, in part, a new model of multimedia systems, my research includes interface designs that consider the complexity of multimedia objects, create high-fidelity environments, and incorporate an understanding of cinema and of digital video's temporal, spatial, and psychological nature. This research also aspires to take the captivating power of story and fantasy, and combine it with motivating design, for applications ranging from learning and entertainment to information access and scientific visualization.

Before moving over to the ETC & HCII, I was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute from 1987-1997. At the SEI I led the Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT) Project, blending AI techniques and digital video technology in the creation of a code inspection course. Latter I led projects exploring the use of multimedia for requirements elicitation, and improving the utility of large multimedia databases for both software engineering tools and training. This included work on the Advanced Multimedia Organizer for Requirements Elicitation (AMORE) which was the forerunner to the Informedia Digital Video Library Project. We recently finished working on the Silver Project, developing an intelligent editor for Informedia video.

I am collaborating with faculty at UPMC's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this work we are investigating applications of CMU Informedia technologies to clinical research and patient quality of life. Called CareMedia this five-year research projects funded by NSF Information Technology Research program aims to create a meaningful, manageable information resource that enables more complete and accurate assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation of behavioral problems for the elderly.

An ongoing line of research is the Synthetic Interview , a technology Mike Christel and I created. SI's allow you to have an online conversation with experts, celebrities, and even historical figures like Albert Einstein. Newly funded research projects involving Synthetic Interviews are Physics Teaching Web Advisory (Pathway) and Putting a Face on Cognitive Tutors. Pathways, part of the National Science Digital Libraries (NSDL) program, is combining and extending Informedia and Synthetic Interview research, with pedagogical advances developed Kansas State University Physics Education Group to provide continuously improving assistance and expertise for physics teachers. Putting a Face on Cognitive Tutors is a five-year research project also funded by the NSF-ITR program. This project is building an “active learning” environment combining the framework and benefits of cognitive tutors with the support of “active inquiry” through synthetic interviews.

For more information on ALT, AMORE, Informedia, Silver and Synthetic Interviews, click below.

For my far flung family and friends, take a look at some pictures of the 'clan.'

I actually put new ones (as of June, 05) for the first time in 3 years. No promises, but I'll try to add more in less than 3 years.