AWS Public Sector Blog

AWS EdStart helps EdTech entrepreneurs build solutions that are secure, smart, scalable, cost effective, and most importantly, ones that positively impact the education sector. Check out how GlyphEd, Exploros, and WayUp, members of the AWS EdStart community, are building smart solutions to revolutionize education.

Pressure on schools to provide more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) resources to students, combined with the needs of business for a properly trained 21st century workforce have driven Marmion Academy to create the Computational Prototyping and Research Center (CPARC).

Last week, we held our first-ever AWS Public Sector Summit in Europe. Customers from over 40 countries traveled to Brussels to hear from leaders across the public sector about how they use the cloud to build a digital generation. Teresa Carlson, VP of Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, delivered a keynote highlighting how public sector organizations are taking on the role of “builders” on behalf of their citizens. Santillana, European Commission, and Skinvision took the stage to share how they are creating new citizen services, improving the delivery and performance of existing programs, and making data-driven decisions.

As we find ourselves working with a growing number of public sector customers, it’s important to look back at how the dialogue around public sector cloud adoption has evolved. This is particularly relevant for security, as we continue to earn trust with organizations around the safe-keeping of their data in the cloud.

AWS Educate is committed to providing students and educators with resources needed to accelerate cloud learning, which is why we have collaborated with Udacity – an online education provider for lifelong learners – to bring our members access to skills, knowledge, and practice for today’s machine learning technology. Beginning on May 18th, AWS Educate members will receive an exclusive benefit of $200 worth of free content on their Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree Program. With Udacity, AWS Educate members can master valuable machine learning skills and use their AWS Promotional Credits to gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge AWS Machine Learning technologies like Amazon SageMaker.

As we celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day, we are reminded of the powerful alliance between creativity and innovation, and a third element – technology. Nonprofits and social impact organizations are increasingly looking to this combined approach for solving some of the world’s most pressing issues. Here are three nonprofits that are employing creativity and innovation for social good

I had the pleasure of taking the stage in Brussels and giving the keynote presentation at our first-ever European Public Sector Summit. I was inspired by the hundreds of organizations in attendance and by the number of whom have embraced the cloud to support their digital transformation initiatives. I also was awed by how much our customers have been able to achieve using AWS technology, notably the European Commission and Santillana. These leaders shared stories of saving money and delivering innovative digital solutions through AWS that are helping to build a better future.

Today at the AWS Public Sector Summit in Brussels, we announced that AWS EdStart, a program that is designed to help startup educational technology (EdTech) companies build teaching and learning solutions on the AWS Cloud, is now available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

We are excited to announce the launch of the Registry of Open Data on AWS (RODA). With RODA, you can find and share data staged publicly for analysis on AWS. Search for datasets by keyword and tags for common types of data, such as genomic, satellite imagery, and transportation, on a simple web interface. Every dataset listed in RODA includes basic information about the data, how to access it on AWS, its license, a link to documentation, and contact information if you have questions. Many listings also include links to tutorials or applications that make use of the data.

The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based policy research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve decision making, strengthen communities, and make people’s lives better. As a leader in data-driven policy research, the Urban Institute was looking for a solution that would enable it to run sophisticated data analytics and microsimulation models with flexibility, speed, and accuracy.