CREATE-X, an entrepreneurial program teaching students at Georgia Tech how to launch startups, has partnered with Amazon to support student startups and promote advancements in voice technology and conversational AI.
The school is the fifth university awarded support through Amazon's Alexa Fund. The fund provides up to $200 million in venture capital to fuel voice technology innovation.
“The support from Amazon is a huge opportunity for our students who are interested in conversational AI research and technology,” Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, director and co-founder of CREATE-X, said in a statement. “With this funding, we hope to empower our students to catalyze their ideas within the voice technology space, all while keeping an entrepreneurial mindset.”
According to representatives at CREATE-X, the program has had a number of AI-powered startups, including Highview, Pelori, Career Blitz and Next Century Farms. Applications are now open for the 2020 CREATE-X Startup Launch summer accelerator program.
“We’re inspired by the creativity and tenacity of the students that are part of CREATE-X at Georgia Tech and are honored to support them through the Alexa Fund Fellowship as they tackle some of the hardest challenges in conversational AI," Paul Bernard, director of the Alexa Fund at Amazon, said in a statement.
Founded in 2014, CREATE-X is a program designed to nurture entrepreneurial confidence among Georgia Tech students. Startups within the accelerator are given funding, skills, mentorship, feedback and other experiences to help them cultivate their business beyond students' undergraduate years.
“The college is excited to see what our students can do with these resources that will fuel voice technology innovation across the world," Steve McLaughlin, dean and Southern Company chair of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering and co-founder of CREATE-X, said in a statement.
