Personal Digital Assistants: Are we realizing the vision? - A.J. Brush, Microsoft

Conference Website: http://saiconference.com/FTC A.J. Bernheim Brush's area of expertise is Human-Computer Interaction with a focus on Ubiquitous Computing. Part of the Microsoft Cortana product group since January 2016, she spent the previous 12 years in Microsoft Research. In Cortana, her team works on connecting Cortana with other assistants like Alexa and improving the speech interaction experience. A.J. is most well known for her research on technologies for families and her expertise conducting field studies of technology. She has built and deployed numerous sensing systems into homes. She received an alumni achievement award in 2017 from UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science, a Borg Early Career Award in 2010, and has over 20 patents. Her research has received a 10-year impact award, 2 best paper awards, and several best paper nominations. A.J. is a member of the UbiComp Steering Committee, on the Advisory Board of the ACM Proceedings on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technology (IMWUT), an editor for Pervasive Computing Magazine, and a Senior Member of the ACM. To encourage diversity in computing, she serves on the CRA-W board and was co-chair from 2014 - 2016. Keynote Title: Personal Digital Assistants: Are we realizing the vision? Abstract: With the rapid adoption of digital assistants across many hardware form factors built by different companies, this is an exciting time to be working on natural language interactions and digital assistance. Drawing inspiration from past research and visions of personal digital assistants, we will examine where today's digital assistants excel and where they fall short. We'll celebrate the breakthroughs, discuss the challenges and concerns, and explore remaining opportunities.