As part of the company's Alexa Fund Fellowship to improve voice technology. :
Amazon is now working with 18 universities to encourage research into voice technology that could help the company’s Alexa voice assistant. The online retail giant said on Wednesday that it plans to award fellowships to graduate students and faculty members at schools like Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California, Berkeley. The 18 universities marks a major increase from last year, when the Alexa Fellowship program debuted with four schools.