October 9th, 2018 | In partnership with Sonos and the University of Washington | University of Washington, Seattle
Sonos Challenge:
University of Washington
October 9th, 2018
On Tuesday, October 9th, over 100 University of Washington students came together for a kickoff event in partnership with Real Industry and Sonos to answer this question: How do we design or build an experience that delivers the right sound, at the right moment, into people's lives? The Real Industry team was thrilled to join Sonos in Seattle for the second year in a row.
“Last year, over 100 University of Washington students, with different and complementary levels of skill in digital signal processing, computer science, and machine learning, got together and shared a fine set of experiences. These students were able to apply the concepts that they learned in usual classroom and lab instruction. It was really nice to watch them experience the importance of their creativity in their work. Moreover, they were also able to bring some exciting new concepts back as future research and class projects.”
Smart speakers are transforming how we enjoy music, access information, and interact with our homes. Industry mentors from Sonos are facilitating a challenge in which university students design smart speaker experiences that improve the moments in our daily lives. Over the course of two weeks, students will use Sonos hardware and software to explore this prompt, build something, and communicate the engineering and business value behind their accomplishments.
“I enjoyed the Real Industry-Sonos events last year in Boston and Seattle. For me, the fact that the students were exposed to a broad cross section of the development process, including ideation, product management, and design, as well as the actual coding, was particularly appealing. I’m excited to see what students do this year with our open developer platform.”
“Today’s university students are the future leaders of industry...By partnering with Sonos and the University of Washington, we’re able to give students unprecedented access to real-world challenges, technologies, and career opportunities. ”
The Sonos Challenge empowers university students to get experience with technology and innovation in an industry they’re passionate about, all while receiving mentorship from professionals in the field. This partnership between Real Industry and Sonos provides students with opportunities they would not have otherwise accessed.
Team Feel.io won the UW Sonos Challenge. In their words: “Express and embrace your feelings, fill the room with your energy and your emotions with Feel.io & SONOS. Together, we deliver the right music, at the right moment, in….to your life. As soon as you say the magic wake-word: ”Feelio!” The embedded microphone will turn on and our artificial intelligence algorithm will listen to your humming, go through the music library in the cloud, and locate the particular song. At the same time, we identify songs with a similar vibe or in the same genre and play them back to you through your SONOS speaker. It is the best way to celebrate your current mood, discover and explore music.”
Congratulations to the Feel.io team: Xu Yan, Computer Science, Zoe Zou, Master in Science and Technology Innovation, Hal Zhang, Electrical Engineering, and Padraic Casserly, Technology Innovation, Bio-Chemistry. Check out their video below!