Microsoft envisions the future world at DevDays Asia 2017

Taiwanese talent on the world stage -- DevDays Asia aligning with Taiwan's Asia Silicon Valley plan

Microsoft has introduced several IoT-related industrial cooperation and talent training programs in Taiwan since it signed an MOU with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in October 2015 to develop the IoT industry and set up the Microsoft IoT Innovation Center in October 2016. Earlier this month, it announced to co-launch with the Institute for Information Industry (III) its first training and certification program for data scientists in the greater China region. Offering AI services, cloud platform services, data analytics and many other technologies, Microsoft has been supportive of Taiwan's effort to move from a hardware-based or component-based business model toward five innovation-based industries: defense & aeronautics, smart machinery, green technology, bio-medicine, and IoT (i.e. making Taiwan the Asia Silicon Valley). This is in line with Microsoft's continuous work in providing Taiwanese industrial partners with access to the company's newest developers tools and systems, and in facilitating cross-platform interoperability, open specifications, and open programs.

"Taking Taiwan as the hub of Asia, Microsoft has showcased more than 30 solutions in the IoT Solution Exhibition Center after it co-established the Microsoft IoT Innovation Center with the MOEA. More than 255 Taiwanese cloud devices are Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT, accounting for 52% of the certified devices in the world. Looking ahead, Microsoft will continue to help our partners tap into the IoT value chain's unlimited business opportunities," said Steven Shaw, General Manager of Microsoft Taiwan. "In addition to sharing the newest technologies and first-hand information with Taiwan, Microsoft will devote resources to local partners, working together to train skillful AI and data science professionals, who are key to future industry development. We hope that DevDays Asia could provide our partner developers in Taiwan with new tools and services, serve as a stage where they can connect to world markets, and realize the vision of a more intelligent future."

The Taiwanese government's plan to build an Asia Silicon Valley aims to increase the global share of Taiwan's IoT business from 3.8% in 2015 to 4.2% by 2020 and to 5% by 2025. In this context, MOEA Deputy Minister Jong-Chin Shen said, "Microsoft has long been working closely with our industries. Recently it has been cooperating with us on industry development and skill training, under the framework of the 5+2 Industry Innovation Policy. We hope that Microsoft could make Taiwan its innovation center and base in Asia in areas beyond the IoT, and that it could deepen its cooperation with Taiwanese industries in developing Asia and even international markets by continuously putting in, among other things, AI and information security related technologies and resources."

Highlights from Microsoft Build 2017 reproduced at DevDays Asia

Directed by Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau, and co-hosted by the IPO Forum and Microsoft, this year's DevDays Asia brings you hot topics and the newest development and technologies from Microsoft Build -- Microsoft's biggest developer event every year in Seattle. With an aim to connect Asia with the Silicon Valley and promote strategies for related industries in Taiwan and Asia, the three-day event is built around four themes, AI and Data, Office Extensibility, Interoperability, and Tutorial, covering various areas:

• AI and Data: Microsoft has announced to offer developers 29 APIs in its Cognitive Services, including facial, emotion and image recognition, text to speech, speech recognition, Language Understanding Intelligence Service (LUIS), and more. For example, the new Presentation Translator in PowerPoint can translate a slide deck into various languages in real-time during a presentation. Microsoft Bot Framework now supports Adaptive Card, which allows developers to deploy their finished codes to multiple applications and platforms. Meanwhile, as demand for IoT and big data analytics applications keeps growing, Microsoft has introduced the new Azure IoT Edge with the capability to span cloud and IoT edge devices that make it easy to securely distribute cloud intelligence locally and help industries to integrate cloud resources.
• Office Extensibility: New functions are now available on Microsoft Teams, such as third-party notifications in the activity feed, new plug-ins, and actionable messages. Microsoft has also announced several new Microsoft Graph APIs including SharePoint and Planner. Microsoft Graph facilitates connections, dialogues, meeting scheduling, and work stream and content handling. It supports developers in building smarter applications by introducing a smarter work model.
• Interoperability: Speeches cover Microsoft Commitment to Interoperability, Exchange Protocol Overview, Office Online (WOPI), Office Protocol Test Tools, Windows Interop test tools, SQL Server Protocol Overview, and the latest SQL Server Interop test tools.
• Tutorials: There are sessions on SQL Server R Services for Data Science Professionals, OData / REST / Graph Tutorial, as well as an Office Add-in Workshop.

"In a world witnessing almost infinite computing power and exponential data growth, Microsoft is walking ahead of the times and envisioning a whole new world in near future. We focus on providing AI and cloud services to every developer, connecting data and cloud computing power all around the world, and building IoT Edge and AI services for the future. Embracing openness, Microsoft continuously supports developers by introducing more cross-platform services that give developer full support across mobile, webpages, and cloud. Without limitations, they could realize all kinds of applications and achieve more," said Cathy Yeh, Principal Program Manager of Microsoft Internet of Things Innovation Center, Cloud and Enterprise Engineering Group, Microsoft.

"With more than 100 million monthly commercial active users, Office 365 is where the world works. Microsoft has announced plans to better connect developers with Office 365 customers around the globe: any developer can now publish for Microsoft Teams, the new chat-based workspace in Office 365. Coming soon, apps in Teams will be more discoverable for end users through a new app experience. Developers can also add new capabilities to Teams apps, including third-party notifications in the activity feed, Compose Extensions and Actionable Messages," said Tristan Davis, Group Program Manager of the Office Platform team, Microsoft. "Microsoft Bot Framework is now used by over 130,000 developers. Microsoft Bot Framework is open to developers using any kind of programming languages to develop Chatbots that can interact with humans with natural languages and support various application platforms such as Office 365, Skype, Slack and regular web applications. AI and Chatbot applications will be everywhere in the future that are to provide smarter and faster services to create value for every industry."

More than 600 contestants and a chance to shine at the developer skill challenge

This year in the three-day program, DevDays Asia has invited technology experts from Microsoft headquarters to have exchanges with more than 600 developers, focusing on AI services, data analytics and Office 365 applications. Another highlight of the event is the final round of the AI Service Application Contest, where developers build value-added services for AI+Chatbot or AI+ Office 365. Powered by Microsoft Bot Framework + Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS), they could build a cross-platform chatbot in a short period of time. This is expected to stimulate new ideas and energy. Developers also have the opportunity to see their creation become a part of Taipei citizen's life as applications using data from Hello Taipei, the city government's reporting and complaints service, may find their way into the service.

DevDays Asia 2017 was held from May 23 to 25 on the second floor of Hua Nan Commercial Bank's convention center. To learn more about the event, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/taiwan/events/2017DevDays/English/agenda.htm#middle_menu

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SOURCE Microsoft Taiwan