Yang Liu, an Alexa AI principal scientist, and Ruhi Sarikaya, director of applied science, Alexa AI, have recently been named IEEE Fellows. The designation takes effect January 1, 2021. Liu is being honored for her "contributions to speech understanding and language-learning technology", while Sarikaya is being recognized for his "leadership in spoken language processing, and conversational understanding systems". Both currently lead research initiatives focused on making Alexa more natural and conversational, perceptive and context aware, and capable of self learning. The IEEE Fellow designation is conferred by the IEEE board of directors upon individuals with outstanding records of accomplishment in any of the IEEE fields of interest.

The spate of natural disasters which have hit the U.S. has demonstrated that there is much that needs to be done when it comes to rescuing efforts, preventive measures, and other associated issues. Many tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft have put in large-scale efforts in order to help people be safe during natural disasters, but the relevance of technology in such situations has been rapidly increasing. Technology can play a large role during natural disasters as has been demonstrated in Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Experts from IEEE, the world's biggest technical professional organizations have in an email to the International Business Times, provided their opinions on the use of technology in natural disasters. Dr. Massoud Amin, IEEE fellow and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, provided IBT with his take on one of the most important aspects of technology during natural disasters, stating that,"It [technology] enables better proactive planning, prepositioning of the assets and assists with more real-time recovery and restoration.