Angeliki focuses on Natural Language Understanding (NLU) for Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service. “I work on expanding the functionality that Alexa can support so that she can understand more things customers tell her,” she says. “Our focus from a research perspective is how to expand very fast to help Alexa understand more and more.” 

Before working for Amazon, Angeliki completed a PhD at the University of Southern California focused on processing speech and visual information to analyze how humans interact and express behaviors and emotions, and worked on dialog and speech assessment systems. 

Moving from an academic environment to the Alexa team has allowed Angeliki to tackle technical challenges in a new way. “Something that works theoretically in a research paper may not work in a product, so you have to be creative,” she says. “It’s motivating to see your work having a real impact on customers.” 

Angeliki works with a variety of individuals, from NLU experts to data analysts and engineering teams who put prototypes into production. She describes smart co-workers with an ambitious vision, rich data, and AWS computing resources as the ideal combination for a scientist. 

Outside of work, Angeliki enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, yoga, reading, and traveling.