Thanks to support from ICT-DM Deputy Sector Navigator Paula Hodge, a team of students from Cuesta College was among the top finishers in the national Amazon Web Services Alexa Skills Hackathon.
Out of 1,084 participants, the Cuesta team tied for fifth place. Team members Royce Ferriday, Thomas Shoulders, and Adair Gomez Garduno created Quest Assist, a chatbot designed to help students find information about everything from campus food to tutoring services.
The project was part of Cuesta’s Introductory Cloud Computing course taught by computer information systems instructor Robert Sfarzo. Quest Assist is now available as a skill in the Alexa store, and the team received an Alexa Spot, Amazon Web Services credits, and Amazon gift cards.
In just six weeks, students without any prior programming experience learned everything necessary to create a basic chatbot – showing how easy and accessible these technologies can be. Read More…
