Author: AWS Public Sector Blog Team

Welcome to 2020! In 2019, the AWS Public Sector Blog featured stories from the education, nonprofit, government, and healthcare sectors, showcasing topics from customer-centric healthcare to cloud degree announcements to technical how-tos. As we look back on 2019, let’s recap our top ten posts of the year.

From announcements at AWS re:Invent 2019 to building a healthcare data lake, check out what you missed in December on the AWS Public Sector Blog.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has arrived. Researchers and software providers are launching new solutions using AI and ML to solve business problems and differentiate in their market segments. In higher education, institutions try to stand out by using technology – particularly AI and ML – to improve the daily lives and experiences of students and faculty, managing issues from facility management to student success to fraud detection. Learn how AWS Education Competency Partners are helping with AI & ML.

Almost three quarters of government information technology (IT) professionals and decision-makers say their agency holds onto their data centers for too long, and overvalues those data centers according to MeriTalk’s recently published report and infographic “Infrastructure Psychology: Overvaluing Outdated Data Centers.”

Because many careers now include robotics, it’s important for schools to incorporate robotics and related education into their curriculums to train and empower the future workforce. Read on to learn about three AWS EdStart startups that are using AWS to teach robotics and supporting technologies in the classroom.

The Government of Canada (GC) signed a framework agreement with AWS to provide Commercially Available Cloud Services for workloads up to the level of Protected B/Medium Integrity/Medium Availability (PBMM). Having a contract vehicle with a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) is a significant step forward in modernizing digital government for Canadians, and will further the Government of Canada’s Cloud and digital strategy. This contract is in addition to the procurement vehicle for unclassified data announced in 2018.

Last week at AWS re:Invent, students from a local Las Vegas high school and students who traveled in from the United Kingdom (UK) participated in an AWS Field Trip to get inspired and excited to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers through a day of fun, hands-on engagements with technology.

Education Dive announced George Mason University (GMU), Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), and AWS Educate earned the Higher Ed “Partnership of the Year” award for collaborating to launch a two and four-year cloud degree pathway. Education Dive, a digital publication for the education industry, gives out the annual Dive Awards to the industry’s top innovators for their efforts to shape the future of education.

In July, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a new contest in collaboration with SXSW EDU designed to find the best application of voice technology in education. Our challenge to the EdTech world? Tell us how you would use Alexa to transform education. From tutoring help and language learning programs to teaching guides and career planning tools – we’ve been amazed by the creativity and potential impact of the ideas EdTechs sent us.

This week, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced two new AWS Cloud Innovation Centers (CICs) in Bahrain at the University of Bahrain (UoB) and at Bahrain Polytechnic (BP). Teresa Carlson, vice president of worldwide public sector at AWS, made the announcement at the annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. Both CICs will be supported by Tamkeen, a public authority in Bahrain focused on workforce development.