>> VITA is the latest in an evolution of virtual humans created by the **Virtual Human Toolkit**, a flexible framework for humans and virtual humans to interact across a variety of settings.
* The Virtual Human Toolkit was first developed in 2013 by researchers at ICT and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, including Arno Hartholt, David Traum, Stacy Marsella, Jonathan Gratch, Louis-Philippe Morency and **Ari Shapiro**.