diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 92640e53a..66d9b33da 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 *.settings
 edison/wordnet/
 
+.gitignore
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index d05adc3ed..356f9840f 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
         <module>similarity</module>
         <module>inference</module>
         <module>quantifier</module>
+        <module>scala-tools</module>
         <!--pipeline should always be the last item to compile, since some of the previous dependencies have direct dependency on the pipeline-->
         <module>pipeline</module>
     </modules>
diff --git a/scala-tools/.gitignore b/scala-tools/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..71c542bfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scala-tools/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# Created by .ignore support plugin (hsz.mobi)
+### Scala template
+*.class
+*.log
+
+# sbt specific
+.cache
+.history
+.lib/
+dist/*
+target/
+lib_managed/
+src_managed/
+project/boot/
+project/plugins/project/
+
+# Scala-IDE specific
+.scala_dependencies
+.worksheet
+
+
+### Java template
+*.class
+
+# Mobile Tools for Java (J2ME)
+.mtj.tmp/
+
+# Package Files #
+*.jar
+*.war
+*.ear
+
+# virtual machine crash logs, see http://www.java.com/en/download/help/error_hotspot.xml
+hs_err_pid*
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scala-tools/README.md b/scala-tools/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b0200dbfb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scala-tools/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# Scala Tools 
+
+## Structure 
+This is a sample project with Maven which contains both Scala and Java code. It is using the [scala-maven-plugin](https://github.com/davidB/scala-maven-plugin).
+ 
+ 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scala-tools/pom.xml b/scala-tools/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a027afd38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scala-tools/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+<project xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    <parent>
+        <artifactId>illinois-cogcomp-nlp</artifactId>
+        <groupId>edu.illinois.cs.cogcomp</groupId>
+        <version>3.0.92</version>
+    </parent>
+
+    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+    <artifactId>scala-utils</artifactId>
+    <name>Scala Utilities</name>
+    <description>scala utilities to access cogcomp tools</description>
+
+    <dependencies>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.scala-lang</groupId>
+            <artifactId>scala-library</artifactId>
+            <version>2.12.1</version>
+        </dependency>
+    </dependencies>
+
+    <build>
+        <plugins>
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>net.alchim31.maven</groupId>
+                <artifactId>scala-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>3.2.2</version>
+                <executions>
+                    <execution>
+                        <id>compile</id>
+                        <goals>
+                            <goal>compile</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                        <phase>compile</phase>
+                    </execution>
+                    <execution>
+                        <id>test-compile</id>
+                        <goals>
+                            <goal>testCompile</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                        <phase>test-compile</phase>
+                    </execution>
+                    <execution>
+                        <phase>process-resources</phase>
+                        <goals>
+                            <goal>compile</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                    </execution>
+                </executions>
+            </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+    </build>
+</project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scala-tools/src/main/scala/edu/illinois/cs/cogcomp/Main.scala b/scala-tools/src/main/scala/edu/illinois/cs/cogcomp/Main.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..14ef0d8ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scala-tools/src/main/scala/edu/illinois/cs/cogcomp/Main.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+package edu.illinois.cs.cogcomp
+
+object Main {
+  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
+    println("HELLO WORLD from SCALA! ")
+  }
+}