Microsoft DevDays Asia 2019: Leveraging Cross-Disciplinary Skills for Next-Gen AI Talents in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- AI-led digital transformation is a core competence of companies to wish to speed ahead in global competition. To cultivate the next generation of AI talents, Microsoft Taiwan facilitates DevDays Asia 2019 with innovative tools to further explore potentials among developer as well as new digital opportunities for local economies. The event, directed by Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, is set to kick off from May 21 to 23 at Academia Sinica.

Each year, DevDays Asia serves as the pivot to bring in advanced technologies and latest industry trends from around the world. In his opening remarks, Ken Sun, General Manager of Microsoft Taiwan, highlighted how edge computing and AI together have changed world's business models and our daily lives. He also shared key ideas on technology deployment from Microsoft Build 2019, "This year Microsoft has launched several solutions. They all revolved around the same theme, which is the cross-disciplinary integration of cloud, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to accelerate collaboration. AIoT is an excellent example of that integration which has accelerated the realization of smart IoT."

Mr. Sun asserted that Taiwan is a technology powerhouse with valuable potentials not to be overlooked.  He congratulated the seven Taiwanese companies dominating the latest Azure IoT PnP (Plug and Play) partner list. The list, as announced in Microsoft Build 2019, consists of seventeen corporate partners, and out of which seven are from Taiwan, including Compal, Aaeon, Wistron, VIA, Sharp, Askey and Delta.

Microsoft Taiwan is committed to the 'AI 100' project, which aims to support local partners and clients in developing customized AI solutions by offering technical resources and expert teams. In DevDays Asia 2019, more than 30 industry experts from home and abroad will represent highlights from Microsoft Build in six themes, namely Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Office 365 Development and Industry Solutions, Productivity, Security, and Technology Development. In addition, they will share the latest developments in Microsoft technologies. In over 50 hands-on workshops, new advancements in Azure and Microsoft 365 will be introduced with demos, delivering fresh ideas to local developers. 

Aligning with Ministry of Economic Affairs' policies and projects, Microsoft Taiwan has placed great emphasis on developing AI talent for different verticals. "AI readiness has been viewed as the most important pillar for enterprise digital transformation," remarked Mr. Sun. "We aim at building an AI talent hub in Taiwan for Asia-Pacific to facilitate transformation, attract international businesses and create more opportunities."

Microsoft creates user experience-centered agile services across platforms and systems

According to Senior Product Marketing Manager of Office Ecosystem Daniel Canning, the first keynote speaker, Teams is the fastest growing business application in Microsoft's history, currently adopted by over 500,000 businesses. Teams optimizes organizations' internal communication from messaging, online conferences to video calls. Integrated with Office 365, Teams can run PowerApps, Flow, and Microsoft Graph, and improves work efficiency significantly.

Asad Khan, Director of Program Management in Azure Data Engineering Group, explained the evolution of SQL Server and how we are solving the new data needs through innovations, both in the cloud and on-premises. He is thrilled to show the innovations in SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database Edge. SQL Server has evolved to provide a complete, secure, high performance platform from ground to cloud, offering multiple features, capabilities, and new levels of immense scale. Together, SQL Server and Microsoft Azure provide a complete infrastructure and platform for every data task.

In recent years, Office 365 has been more than an office productivity tool. It is now capable of discovering insightful information from behavioral data. Kamal Janardhan, Partner Director of Program Management for Microsoft, commented that Workplace Analytics and MyAnalytics could analyze data from everyday work in Office 365 to identify patterns and optimize workflow. For example, Workplace Analytics can group messages in emails and conclude that low efficiency may result from too many meetings back to back. The AI technology of MyAnalytics will remind users of unread emails from important clients.

Microsoft Taiwan is devoted to synchronize Taiwan with the latest technologies revealed at Microsoft Build. It is committed to putting forward visionary solutions across industries and fulfilling its mission to help Taiwan businesses to complete digital transformation.

SOURCE Microsoft Taiwan