Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon is corporate vice president of Microsoft, chairman of Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific R&D Group, and managing director of Microsoft Research Asia. He drives Microsoft’s strategy for research and development activities in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as collaborations with academia. Dr. Hon is an internationally recognized expert in speech technology, an IEEE Fellow and a Distinguished Scientist of Microsoft. He holds three dozen patents in several technical areas. Dr. Hon joined Microsoft Research as a senior researcher in 1995 and has been a key contributor to Microsoft’s SAPI and speech engine technologies. He previously worked at Apple Computer, where he led research and development for Apple’s Chinese Dictation Kit. Dr. Hon received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Taiwan University. Dr. Hon was granted the Beijing Great Wall Friendship Award by the Beijing Municipal Government in 2017 to honor his extraordinary contributions in the fields of science and technology research, talent cultivation, university cooperation, environmental protection, intelligent cities and construction of the innovation ecosystem.