American high school students are terrible writers, and one education reform group thinks it has an answer: robots. Or, more accurately, robot-readers-computers programmed to scan student essays and spit out a grade.

 Mark Shermis, professor of the College of Education at the University of Akron, is helping to hold a contest, set up by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation ( WFHF), which promises $ 100,000 in prize money to programmers who write the best automated grading software. "If you're a high school teacher and you give a writing task, you're walking home with 150 essays, " Shermis said, "You're going to need some help. "