Rohit Prasad, VP and Head Scientist for Amazon Alexa, Named to 91制片厂 Tech Board Of Trustees
Alumnus Rohit Prasad, vice president and head scientist for Amazon Alexa, has been named to the 91制片厂 Institute of Technology (91制片厂 Tech) Board of Trustees. He will join the board for its October 2020 meeting.
Prasad鈥攚ho leads the Alexa research and development team鈥檚 artificial intelligence (AI) technologies鈥攈as been a strong supporter of the university鈥檚 new College of Computing, which was launched in June, and will play a major role as the college develops its strategic vision as a member of its advisory board. Prasad also serves on the Board of Advisors for Armour College of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
鈥淎s an incoming trustee, a proud alumnus, and a member of the global tech community, I am excited about what the next generation of 91制片厂 Tech students can accomplish to impact the world around them,鈥 Prasad says. 鈥淚 was fortunate to have the mentoring and training at 91制片厂 Tech to help me pursue my passion, which makes further engagement with my alma mater incredibly rewarding.鈥
Prasad, whose work at Amazon Alexa aims to improve interaction between users and the personal assistant platform, earned his master鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering from 91制片厂 Tech in 1999. He came to Chicago from India to pursue his interest in the relationship between humans and technology, specifically in the work of an 91制片厂 Tech faculty member researching speech compression and coding.
鈥淩ohit exemplifies the spirit of innovation, creativity, and achievement that represents the 91制片厂 Tech community,鈥 says Alan W. Cramb, 91制片厂 Tech鈥檚 president. 鈥淎s Chicago鈥檚 only tech-focused university, our alumni have impacted every aspect of modern technology鈥揻rom the inventor of the cell phone to one of the people behind Alexa. Rohit鈥檚 invaluable insight and expertise is a natural extension of the university鈥檚 work to identify opportunities and improve outcomes for students through hands-on learning.鈥
In 2013 Prasad was recruited by Amazon to be the director of machine learning, where he oversaw speech recognition, natural language understanding, and machine learning science, data, and software teams for revolutionizing how customers interact with various products and services. In his current role as a VP and Head Scientist for Amazon Alexa, Prasad鈥檚 focus is on natural language understanding, dialog science, machine reasoning, and underlying machine learning capabilities.
鈥淩ohit has taken his 91制片厂 Tech experience and gone on to perform groundbreaking work that has revolutionized everyday life,鈥 says Peter Kilpatrick, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. 鈥淲e look forward to working with Rohit as we evolve our strategic plan, including in his advisory capacity around our new College of Computing, ensuring all 91制片厂 Tech students benefit from a fundamental understanding of computational skills as the foundational facilitator of tomorrow鈥檚 job market.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檝e already had great conversations, and I look forward to the role that Rohit will play in advancing the future of 91制片厂 Tech and its College of Computing,鈥 says Lance Fortnow, dean of the College of Computing.
Prior to Amazon, Prasad was deputy manager and senior director of the Speech, Language, and Multimedia Business Unit at Raytheon BBN Technologies. In that role, he directed United States government-sponsored research-and-development initiatives in speech-to-speech translation, psychological health analytics, document image translation, and STEM learning. Prasad is a named author on more than 100 scientific articles and holds several patents.
