Northwestern's Intelligent Information Lab Featured in NY Times

"The Robots Are Coming! Oh, They're Here."

That's the headline on The New York Times media blog that talks about recent advances made by students and professors at the Intelligent Information Lab based at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The featured project, called Stats Monkey, automatically generates sports stories using commonly available information such as box scores and play-by-plays. Researchers have created algorithms that use that information to write text that captures the overall dynamic of the game and highlights the key plays and players. Along with the text is an appropriate headline and a photo of what the program deems as the most important player in the game.

Says the blog, "...these wunderkinds say that there are no limits to what the technology might do: "The Machine Generated Sports Stories system could be employed by news organizations or directly by organizations which wish to publish information about their activities, such as college sports teams or businesses.'"

Stats Monkey is a joint project between McCormick and the Medill School of Journalism through the Center for Innovation in Technology, Media, and Journalism.

For more info: InfoLab web site.