The Alexa-Illinois Group is a project within the DTI Student lab designed to bring the usability and convenience of Amazon’s Alexa devices to students, faculty, and staff at the University of Illinois.
It began in the summer of 2018 as a collaboration between lab staff, undergraduate, and graduate students. Throughout the summer, the group built a dozen Alexa skills designed to improve the experience of students on campus. These skills included dining hall information, workstation availability, campus building information, and many others. To see videos demonstrating some of the skills visit the project page.
Fall 2018 will see an Alexa-Illinois pilot program launch in the University Residence Halls. The program will distribute 200 Echo Dots to residence hall students with the intent to collect usage data for future skill development.
Questions and comments can be directed to alexasupport@illinois.edu.