top of page

Cathy Pearl

Head of Conversation Design Outreach

Google

How do we make the Google Assistant talk?

Technology

Building voice user interfaces like the Google Assistant is quite a challenge, ranging from the hardware, to how it can speak like a human, to understanding what you say (and more importantly, what you mean). I'll discuss how we make this cool technology work, what you need to know about privacy, and what kind of education can prepare you for a career in this exciting and growing space.

Meet the Speaker:

Cathy Pearl is Head of Conversation Design Outreach at Google, and the author of the O'Reilly book, "Designing Voice User Interfaces". She's been designing and creating Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) for nearly 20 years and is passionate about helping everyone make the best conversational experiences possible. Past speaking engagements include Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, O’Reilly Bot Day, and TechCrunch Disrupt. Previously, Cathy was VP of User Experience at Sensely, whose virtual nurse avatar helps people stay healthy. She has worked on everything from programming NASA helicopter pilot simulators to designing a conversational iPad app in which Esquire magazine's style columnist tells users what they should wear on a first date. She has an MS in Computer Science from Indiana University and and BS in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego.

bottom of page