This semester, the Sutardja Center partnered with Cheetah Mobile to host an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Collider. Chatbots present new opportunities for services to become much more interactive and are “quickly becoming the latest interface for companies and computers to interact with people in their natural language,” says Professor Ikhlaq Sidhu, the Chief Scientist and Founding Director of the Sutardja Center.
Three student teams submitted chatbots to address a variety of different needs, including job searching and activity matching. The winning team pitched Salonneire, a chatbot designed to remove the stress out of event planning.
Salonneire, or Sally for short, gives recommendations, remembers everything that you tell her, emails guests, and manages all the headache-inducing logistics often associated with events. Developed by three Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Students, Ted Xiao, Jin Park, and Gautham Kesineni, Sally is a part of a movement to leverage chatbots and automation to save time and money in our everyday lives.
Left to right: Jin Park, Gautham Kesineni, Ted Xiao
Judges from the Center and Cheetah Mobile selected Sally both for its application and technical strengths. The chatbot integrates many impressive components including a Facebook Messenger interface, email, language processing, and overall value.
Team Sally will receive $2,500 from Cheetah Mobile to develop their chatbot further. “We definitely see a potential in expanding her applications beyond event planning,” says Jin.
The students expressed gratitude for the Collider’s organizers and mentors. “The focused attention we got from professors, industry experts, and our peers in the collider really helped propel our project to the next level,” says Gautham. Ted adds, “The collider project enabled us to take a great idea on paper to a working, impactful prototype. I’m so thankful to this opportunity from the SCET and Cheetah Mobile.”
Follow the following links to learn more about Sally: