Xifeng Yan to Lead UCSB GauchoChat in the SocialBot Grand Challenge 5

CS Professor Xifeng Yan has been selected to act as Faculty Advisor and Team Leader for UCSB GauchoChat in the Alexa Prize SocialBot Grand Challenge 5. Professor Yan's team will compete with eight other universities, including Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University. 

Competitors will receive a $250,000 stipend, as well as access to real world users at scale to develop their innovations in conversational AI.

Professor Yan is notable for being one of the first PI to collect all three Alexa Prize selections: SocialBot, TaskBot, and Simbot.