Posted On: Nov 30, 2022

AWS Machine Learning University is now providing a free educator enablement program that prioritizes U.S. community colleges, Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Educators can leverage these tools to launch stand-alone courses, certificates, or full degrees in data management (DM), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). The goal is to make early-career DM/AI/ML jobs more accessible to a broader and more diverse student population. The program offers a suite of ready-to-use tools to faculty, including a library of ready-to-teach DM/AI/ML educational materials, free computing capacity, and comprehensive faculty professional development built around MLU, Amazon's own internal training program for ML practitioners.

AWS Machine Learning University strives to diversify DM/AI/ML graduate pipelines by providing free curriculum, computing development environment, and year-round educator enablement to faculty at all colleges and universities. The new educator enablement program includes comprehensive courses supported by a suite of professional development engagements, giving educators pre-packaged options to launch their own stand-alone courses, certificates, or full degrees. Faculty, students, and life-long learners may access instructional material through AWS Academy as well as Amazon SageMaker Studio Lab, AWS' free AI/ML development environment that provides computing, storage, and security for anybody to learn and experiment with DM/AI/ML. Faculty at participating institutions will have access to instructor guides, datasets, and MLU support to implement their programs.

Educators get classroom-ready through a community of practice including MLU instructors, Amazon Scholars, and peer faculty. First, they onboard in cohorts via virtual classes to learn the material and deep dive into how to teach it. Next, they select from a menu of year-round professional development opportunities such as a dedicated channel to promote sharing of teaching best practices, a DM/AI/ML education topic series with Amazon Scholars to help stay current on the state of the art in AI/ML education, virtual study sessions moderated by MLU instructors to promote on-going faculty success, and regional events to continue growing and connecting with the community. For institutions wanting to offer full degree programs, AWS Machine Learning University also provides small group consultations with Amazon’s AI/ML education experts. To learn more about the program and express interest in attending an upcoming bootcamp visit here.