This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Tech Community.
This May, a range of MVPs across the globe took part in the Global Cloud Skills Challenge, where they used Microsoft Learn to support them to develop their skills in a new learning area. In this blog, we’ll take a look at three MVPs who participated in the Azure Data and AI Challenge as part of the Global Challenge, and what they produced as the end result.
Jiong Shi
Jiong Shi has been a Microsoft MVP for an astounding twelve years (!) and specializes in Microsoft Azure. As part of the challenge, Jiong used Azure Cognitive Services Custom Vision to create a model that identifies different species of birds – and ran the experiment with some visitor doves in his very own home!
Jiong connected a USB camera and PIR sensor to Raspberry Pi to detect the bird visiting his apartment’s balcony, which then sent the images to Azure Custom Vision to highlight the detected object. Raspberry Pi then uploaded the image to Azure Blob Storage for users to review.
You can find Jiong’s learning path collection here and check out the full blog and step-by-step guide on how to complete the project using Microsoft Learn and Azure technologies.
Xiaodi Yan
Xiaodi Yan has been a Microsoft MVP since 2015 and specializes in Developer Technologies. For the challenge, Xiaodi developed a face recognition application using Azure Cognitive Services on the Microsoft Learn platform. “Microsoft Learn will guide you on how to create the resource and how to write your first line of code. Or even no code at all!” said Xiaodi.
Xiaodi showcased the app at an event for Hour of Code, a global movement to inspire kids to learn computer science. “I believe this fun app can inspire their curiosity around computer science. And maybe one day they would create some cool stuff as well!” he said.
To create an app like Xiaodi’s, you can check out his collection for Azure Cognitive Services here and his blog here.
“What I learned from the MVP Challenge is that AI will significantly impact our lives in the future and we need to be ready to embrace the new AI technologies,” said Xiaodi.
Qian Yun
Qian Yun is a Microsoft Azure MVP. Building on his desire to develop his skills in AI, Qian built an AI story machine as part of the Azure Data and AI Challenge. With the help of Azure Cognitive Services and Speech Studio features, Qian was able to turn fairy tales into audio and play them aloud.
You can find the complete collection of modules here and his step-by-step blog on the process of building the AI-powered story machine – along with the opportunity to listen to the final product – here.