AWS Public Sector Blog

Tag: Artificial Intelligence

reInvent 2020 Jan

New re:Invent sessions for the public sector coming this month

AWS re:Invent 2020 is not over. Additional content will be released January 12-14, 2021 including more than 200 new no-cost, virtual sessions. In the public sector track, watch five new sessions this January on topics from preparing for ransomware to designing AI and ML applications. Hear from customers like the United States Census Bureau and Capella Space in sessions aired first in Americas, then in Asia-Pacific, and finally in EMEA – all available later on demand.

2020 changing to 2021

5 things we’ve learned this year in the cloud for the public sector

This year, global health and economy challenged government, education, nonprofit, and health organizations to rethink operations. With a focus on their mission, organizations quickly shifted to better and more quickly serve their constituents, students, and customers. Many took advantage of ways to innovate and consider adopting the cloud. AWS looked for ways to help these organizations, educating them on the power of the cloud—no matter where they were on their cloud journey—as well as sharing inspiring stories from their peers. Here’s what we learned.

woman taking test on computer

Using the cloud to support remote proctoring and assessment

Around the world, exams are administered to help students and adults further their education and advance their careers. In the US, approximately eight million high school students took a single standardized college entrance exam in 2019. As the pandemic shifted life to virtual work and learning, it also interrupted high stakes exams typically administered in person. For years, EdTechs like ExamSoft, Sumadi (part of Laureate Education), and ProctorFree have been developing remote proctoring and digital assessment solutions using the cloud.

bootprint in sand; photo by Bernard Hermant via Unsplash

Enabling warfighters and intelligence mission success

In a world where data is produced and handled at unprecedented speeds and quantities, the need for effective methods to securely store, analyze, and interpret this data is more important now than ever. As agencies within the U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community turn to cloud adoption, they are able to bring new capabilities closer to the tactical edge and accelerate their digital transformation. Agencies can effectively leverage these new technologies such as AI, ML, and data analytics to free up time and resources for warfighters and analysts to focus on mission critical tasks.

AWS EdStart_Global Founders_Blog Graphic_Roybi and singsound

AI-powered speech recognition is creating interactive learning experiences for children and adults

AWS EdStart Members and founders Long Qin of Singsound and Elnaz Sarraf of ROYBI are using artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize early language learning. Long, based out of Beijing, China, is dedicated to providing accessible and quality English education to every family throughout China. Elnaz, based out of San Francisco, CA, United States, is dedicated to changing the one-size-fits-all approach of our global education system.

AI for good

Solving some of the world’s most difficult problems with AWS and AI for Good

This year, AWS is a gold sponsor of AI for Good, the action-oriented technology-education platform hosted by the United Nations (UN). The organization is delivering a webinar series to provide best practices around how to adopt AI and ML technologies. With less than 10 years remaining to achieve the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, organizations all over the world are using AWS services to deliver various AI and ML-enabled solutions—from delivering disaster-relief services at the edge to reconnecting telecommunications after a hurricane. We are also helping organizations adopt AI and ML technologies more readily in the areas of computer vision, automatic speech recognition, and natural language process to solve ongoing global challenges.

palm tree night sky

Understanding disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS): How FSU achieved a modern solution for an inevitable threat

In October 2018, the Florida panhandle was hit by Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that set a new record for the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the area. Florida State University (FSU) already understood the need for a long-term continuity of operations plan, and the devastation Michael wrought on the surrounding areas solidified how critical a disaster recovery (DR) service is to their overall operations. Disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) is the business world’s advanced solution to unexpected disruption. Whether the threat comes from natural disaster, technical failure, human error, or malicious action, the result is still unplanned downtime and the need for recovery. Learn how FSU designed and launched their DRaaS solution on an accelerated timeline while optimizing costs.

tube train speeding past in a blur at station at night

Mission: Delivering at speed

From speeding the time to science to accelerating the delivery of critical citizen services, our customers are migrating to the AWS Cloud to successfully deliver on their missions. Our current environment has pushed us all into new ways of learning, working, and even socializing. And the cloud has made these recent changes and innovations possible. These customer examples can offer a playbook and inspiration for how organizations can leverage the cloud to innovate quickly and deliver on behalf of citizens.

Hot AWS EdStart Startups: Virtually supporting marginalized learners using EdTech solutions

Quality, inclusive, and relevant education for all helps break the cycle of poverty and reduce inequalities worldwide. As education continues to shift to an online format, the potential for marginalized learners to fall behind is increasing due to the limited number of resources and tools available to help these students succeed. These four AWS EdStart companies from the United States, Brazil, China, and Europe are dedicated to equipping diverse students with tools that can aid them in their educational journey, no matter where they are learning.

cloud horizon

Building cloud-based community knowledge about machine learning to predict and understand extreme weather

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It engages in large-scale Earth system science research projects in collaboration with the broader university community. NCAR hosts visitors from around the world, develops community models including the Community Earth System Model and the Weather Research and Forecasting Model, and maintains supercomputers, observational systems, and aircraft to support further study on the how the planet works. As part of the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative, we invited Dr. David John Gagne, machine learning (ML) scientist at NCAR, to share how open data and machine learning on AWS are impacting the way we predict and understand extreme weather.