AWS Public Sector Blog

The UCLA School of Medicine’s BREATHE (Biomedical REAl-Time Health Evaluation) project for pediatric asthma wanted to know if real-time data collection could pinpoint ways to predict and prevent asthma attacks in children. To explore this, the School of Medicine Research Computing (RC) Team designed an Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment that uses 24/7 data collection, machine-learning algorithms, and heavy computation that their on-premises cluster could not handle.

EDUCAUSE is almost here! Discover how cloud-based virtual desktops and application streaming increase access to learning and how moving your database to the cloud helps boost flexibility, agility, and cost effectiveness. Throughout the event, we will also be sharing examples of how to personalize and increase access to learning with machine learning and voice technology. One example is Alexa for Business by CDW.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Institute today released a briefing paper that illustrates how cities are using technology to enhance access to services and quality of life for their residents. As cities become home to the majority of the world’s population, leaders must ensure that urban infrastructure and services can accommodate growth, and that no one is left behind. Increasingly, they are turning to cloud technology for solutions to the challenges they are facing – from problems like traffic, parking, and waste management to public health crises and natural disasters.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is a worldwide organization for law enforcement leadership to communicate new ideas, share experiences, disseminate information, and build relationships with other law enforcement entities. This year’s conference included sessions on trends in the law enforcement environment, new ideas, technology, and real-world applications. Here are some of the topics that AWS and our network of partners and solutions providers are working on to improve with law enforcement.

The United States Diplomacy Center and World Resources Institute hosted ImpactHack, a data visualization hackathon in Washington, D.C. Sixteen teams competed to demonstrate diplomacy’s impact, from state economies to global issues, using their coding and design skills. Amazon Web Services (AWS) sponsored the event, donating the time of several solutions architects, technology, credits, and expertise in managing the hackathon. Over the course of over a single Saturday, these teams developed their submissions. Projects from the hackathon will be used to develop Diplomacy Center exhibit prototypes. Congrats to the three winners!

Today, VP of Public Policy, Brian Huseman, attended the White House signing ceremony for the SUPPORT for Patients & Communities Act, which seeks to help those impacted by the opioid crisis. Amazon was one of 21 companies in attendance who are working in different ways to solve for the crisis.

Today, we are excited to announce that we are collaborating with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) STRIDES (Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability) Initiative to foster innovation in biomedical research using technological advancements in the AWS Cloud.

As open data policies become commonplace, it is worth examining the history and value of open data, and discuss why we share it in the cloud. The idea of sharing data dates back at least to the 1950s, when the International Council of Scientific Unions established World Data Centers to facilitate sharing of data among scientists. In recent years, governments have created open data policies that require government agencies to share data with the public.

Better estimates of hurricane wind speeds can lead to better decisions around evacuations and general hurricane response planning, saving both lives and property. Hurricane windspeed estimates are currently made using the manual Dvorak technique. The National Hurricane Center releases them every three to six hours. Artificial intelligence (AI) experts with the IMPACT team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Development Seed created the Deep Learning-Based Hurricane Intensity Estimator to automate this process.

Over the years, many organizations’ on-premises IT infrastructure has been compromised. Often times, organizations are left defending infrastructure, data, and people without understanding who is attacking them and why. But the sliver lining is that attackers often use the same tactics to try to initially compromise their targets. Knowing the ways that attackers try to get a foothold in your environment can help you defend it better.