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SUMMARY:Doing science in Alexa - Ewa Muszynska (Amazon)
DTSTART:20220519T120000Z
DTEND:20220519T130000Z
UID:TALK174680@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lorena Qendro
DESCRIPTION:**Abstract**: What sort of science happens behind the scenes w
 hen you have a conversation with Alexa? What role do computer and language
  scientists play in the Alexa experience? In this talk I'll give an overvi
 ew of some of the technologies fuelling Amazon Alexa and Polly services\, 
 with the focus on Text-to-Speech (TTS). For those who are considering a ca
 reer in the industry\,  this will give you an idea of the kind of work and
  challenges scientists deal with everyday at Alexa. I'll also share my exp
 erience of moving from PhD and academia to the industry and what I find to
  be some of the key considerations. \n\n**Bio**: Ewa Muszynska is an Appli
 ed Scientist at Amazon Alexa\, working on Text-to-Spech (TTS) research. Or
 iginally from Poland\, she studied Natural Sciences (Physics) at Downing C
 ollege in Cambridge since 2011\, but swapped to Computer Science Part III 
 for her Master’s degree. She wrote her thesis on semantic chunking under
  the supervision of Prof Ann Copestake and continued that work during her 
 PhD (Clare Hall). In 2020 Ewa finished her thesis and joined Amazon in 202
 0\, where she acts as a technical lead for a cross-functional team of scie
 ntists\, linguists and software engineers.\n\n**Lunch will be provided at 
 12.30 in front of the CL Stores. **
LOCATION:Computer Laboratory\, William Gates Building\, Lecture Theatre 2
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