LPU becomes India’s First University to hold ‘Amazon Alexa Workshop’ on Future of Voice Technology
Jalandhar: Educating students on the future of voice technology, Lovely Professional University (LPU) has become India’s first university to conduct ‘Amazon Alexa Workshop’. With training programs on cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence and voice assistants, LPU is providing its students a peek into the future. For this, LPU hosted Amazon to conduct a workshop on developing voice-based services, where hundreds of LPU students participated. The workshop included hands on session on developing skills for Alexa – a voice service developed by Amazon.
Alexa is the brain behind Echo-devices. These voice-controlled speakers are capable of voice interactions, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audio-books, and providing weather, traffic, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control smart devices for home automation. Users can extend Alexa’s capabilities by installing “skills”, which can be additional functionality developed by third-party vendors such as food ordering, radio, cab booking, recipes and more. Alexa in India currently has over 12,000 skills across various categories.
“Voice is a very natural way of interacting with technology. We have already seen its successful integration with Echo devices for usages from booking a taxi to listening to music. This trend will continue to grow in future,” said Dilip R.S., Country Manager for Alexa Skills Kit, Amazon. “We are excited to see the enthusiasm of students at LPU to learn about developing voice skills for Alexa and building great experiences for Indian customers.”
Congratulating LPU team for engaging with Amazon, LPU Chancellor Mr Ashok Mittal expressed: “We are thankful to Amazon for choosing LPU campus for a workshop on voice technologies and developing skills for Alexa – a cloud-based voice service. LPU is already a forerunner in adopting technology and is further ready to avail opportunities in new areas for the industry preparedness of its students. We are once again thankful to Amazon for reposing faith in LPU endeavours.”