*By Michael Teich* Bayer is turning to Amazon Alexa to find the world's next big scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. The German pharmaceutical and science giant is launching "Science Studio," an Alexa STEM education skill designed to engage the next generation of students. "This is now ears-on-science to do the hands-on-science. Let's go to where the kids are and let's help get them excited about science," Ray Kerins, Bayer's SVP of Corporate Affairs said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. Bayer's efforts caught the attention of six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She sees STEM education as a big opportunity to build a bright future for girls. "To get young girls to have an interest in science, and then with this Alexa Echo app, it's just amazing," she told Cheddar. It is projected that nearly 2.5 million STEM jobs will go unfilled in 2018. By introducing science experiment instructions integrated with Amazon's ($AMZN) smart speaker, Bayer thinks investing in STEM education can minimize future vacancies in the field. "Kids lose interest on STEM and science in the 5th and 6th grade. More importantly, unfortunately, young girls lose it and minorities even worse so," Kerins added. Targeting smart speakers gives Bayer a foot in the door into millions of homes. In 2017, there were 45 million connected homes using virtual assistants and that number is expected to more than double in the next couple of years. It is estimated that 94.2 million households, or 75 percent of U.S. households, will own a smart speaker by 2020.

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