IBM to Students: Shall We Play a Game?

"All great people push themselves and others to do the unthinkable, to stretch the boundaries of what they think they can do," Phil Guido, class of 1979, told the classes of 2011 and 2012 on Wednesday at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark. Guido, a vice president for IBM, returned to Johnson to tell his career story – and bring with him a version of the company's famous artificial intelligence computer system "Watson" – as part of IBM's call to service in honor of the company's 100th anniversary.

The program opened with a short video detailing IBM's achievements since 1911 and demonstrating how a company that originally sold meat slicers evolved to become a technology giant – one that holds more than 5,800 patents. Watson, which defeated "Jeopardy" champions Ken Jennings and Brad Sutter in January, was named for the company's first president, Thomas J. Watson. 

Following the video, Guido told the story of his journey from ALJ to IBM, complete with his 1979 yearbook photo. He attended Montclair State University and spent his senior year working as a marketing assistant for IBM. He had plans to enroll in law school, but was offered a full-time job at IBM. Guido then remained with the company, which eventually placed him in Paris as vice president for the Europe, Middle East and Africa divisions. Today, Guido serves as IBM's East Region vice president.

After telling his story, Guido played an in-house video for IBM employees, one that incorporates inspirational scenes from movies such as "Rocky" and "Remember the Titans." 

Ed Nazarko, an IBM IT architect, then took the stage to explain how Watson "thinks."

"If you know how Watson works, you might know how to beat him," Nazarko, said "You can't win 'Jeopardy' by having everything in a database and looking it up. You have to figure out what the questions mean," which includes understanding puns, slang and other nuances. 

A team of 10 Johnson then competed in a round of Jeopardy against Watson. The students in the audience cheered on their classmates, united in an attempt to take down the computing behemoth.

Watson's lightning-fast answers ultimately overwhelmed its human competitors, but the Johnson team did take the lead at one point during the game, especially after the students learned to choose categories that would likely prove more difficult for Watson to understand.

The program was presented twice, first to juniors and seniors and then to freshmen and sophomores.