This document has been archived. Media Advisory - March 14, 2001 PA/M 01-11 ABC-TV’S PrimeTime Thursday Features Information Technology Research on Virtual Tutor "Baldi" is a computerized 3D tutor for children with hearing impairments On March 15, the ABC-TV news magazine PrimeTime Thursday will feature a National Science Foundation (NSF) information technology research project. The segment was originally set to air on March 8 but was delayed due to breaking news. ABC correspondent Jay Schadler will describe how "Baldi," a 3D virtual tutor, is helping hearing-impaired students to understand and produce spoken language. The animated instructor converses via the latest computer technologies for speech recognition and generation. The project, led by University of Colorado professor Ron Cole, is described in an NSF press release at http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr0119.htm. The "virtual tutor" is one of several NSF projects in which computer research is helping to educate people with disabilities. NSF is also supporting a computer-animated "signing avatar" that translates English into sign language, helping deaf and hard-of-hearing children develop language and reading skills. A second press release describes that project at http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr0120.htm. Who: University of Colorado professor Ron Cole, NSF principal investigator of “Creating Conversational Agents for Language Training: Technologies for the Next Generation of Interactive Systems” What: Segment on 3D virtual tutor, "Baldi." When: 10:00 p.m. EST, Thursday, March 15, 2001 on local ABC stations Where: ABC-TV PrimeTime Thursday For more information contact: Tom Garritano (703) 292-8070/tgarrita@nsf.gov