Vol. 17, No. 7	Oct. 16, 1997

Developer of chess-playing computer to speak Oct. 21

CJ. Tan, senior manager of IBM's Deep Blue Computer Chess Project, will explain the technology behind the "chess computer" and discuss the social implications of Deep Blue's recent defeat of human world chess champion Garry Kasparov in an historic match between man and machine.

His 3:30 p.m. talk is scheduled on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Room 100 of Wolf Hall.

Admission is free, and seating is limited.

By defeating Kasparov, Deep Blue demonstrated that a sophisticated chess system can be developed using the IBM RS6000/SP parallel processor.

This accomplishment met a long-standing challenge in computer science, demonstrating how large, complex problems can be effectively solved with parallel processing computer systems.

Tan, senior manager of the Application Systems Technologies Department at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, is the recipient of the company's Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, its Research Division Award and a special Corporate Award for the Development of Deep Blue. He received his doctorate in engineering from Columbia University in 1969.

His UD talk is sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

For more information, contact Ashfaq Khokar at 831-8517.