We’ve all been there. First day of class and can’t find the room number.
Thanks to some new technology and a little ingenuity, getting lost at Miami Dade College’s (MDC) West Campus could soon be a thing of the past.
This fall semester, MDC computer science major Andres Gutierrez, with help from Pedro Santos at West Campus Network and Media Services, introduced a new device using an Amazon Echo Dot voice recognition system programed in Node.js, a version of the programming software JavaScript, designed to help new students get around campus.
Alexa’s knowledge of West Campus ranges from events to specific locations, department hours of operation and general information about the campus and its administration.
Gutierrez, a School for Advanced Studies student, began working on the project back in February, while completing an internship with Network and Media Services. He programmed the regular off-the-shelf Alexa with a program designed to know information and have pre-programmed answers through lines of coding.
Amazon got wind of the project and sent Gutierrez a T-shirt of a deconstructed Amazon Echo Dot on the front and the phrase “Amazon Alexa // Developer” on the back. Gutierrez hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after he graduates from MDC next spring.
Visit Alexa at MDC West Campus, in the main rotunda on the first floor.
For information, contact Pedro Santos at psantosa@mdc.edu.
