AWS Public Sector Blog

Tag: Amazon EC2

Class2Class

Virtual exchange is transforming the global classroom

Each year, millions of students travel abroad to study and enrich their personal development and global perspective through international student exchange programs. Virtual exchange is becoming an important part of digital learning environments due to its student-centered, cost-effective, and equitable means of advancing international education. One example is
ImmerseU, a virtual exchange learning platform developed by Class2Class, an AWS EdStart Member.

Boolean Girl

Empowering girls with STEM education, safely and at scale

Boolean Girl is educating girls to code, build, invent, and animate. It provides enrichment classes, all-girl camps, special events, and partnerships, preparing girls everywhere to explore computer programming and engineering. Boolean Girl hosts its website on the cloud and is core to everything it does: telling its story, registering students and taking payment for camps and after-school clubs, processing donations, organizing events, building our email lists, and running its online university. Boolean Girl uses the AWS Nonprofit Credit Program to cover vital IT expenses while achieving its mission.

woman about to get her blood drawn

European Convalescent Plasma Collection Platform: Data-driven initiative to fight COVID-19

The European Commission, with three of its Directorates-General (DG) (DG SANTE, DG DIGIT, and DG CONNECT) in collaboration with the European Blood Alliance (EBA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), created the European Union (EU) COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CCP) Platform. This database is based on the concept of passive immunization (an approach promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Blood Regulators Network), which tests the potential of plasma collected from convalescent persons to treat or prevent viruses and diseases such as COVID-19.

hands outstretched holding euros

Five ways nonprofits can reduce the burden associated with fundraising activities

Nonprofits around the world should be able to concentrate on mission-critical activities such as fundraising, instead of focusing on managing their technology infrastructure. Without the burden of worrying about IT, nonprofits can focus on telling their unique stories to drive donations and engagement. Here are five ways that nonprofits can use AWS to accelerate their fundraising.

city traffic with train overpass

Enabling rapid COVID-19 and air pollution analysis across the globe with OpenAQ and AWS

Unravelling the relationship between COVID-19 and air pollution is vital for protecting public health. For example, preliminary works suggest that those living in environments with polluted air are significantly more likely to be adversely affected by COVID-19. At the same time, air pollution is already known to cause an estimated one out of every eight deaths globally. The decrease in human activities due to COVID-19 lockdowns across the world has people wondering how air pollution levels are being impacted—and what valuable public health and policy lessons we can learn.

US Census online

U.S. Census brings nationwide count to the AWS Cloud

The U.S. Census Bureau has made history by inviting people to participate in its decennial count online for the first time, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). The decennial census is an official count of every person living in the United States and five U.S. territories, and it takes place once every ten years. To help bring the Census online, the Census Bureau moved its 2020census.gov website to AWS GovCloud (US).

Flooding in Venice, Italy. Photo courtesy Jonathan Ford

Communicating a national flood risk assessment using AWS

The First Street Foundation is dedicated to communicating the flood and inundation risks posed by a changing environment, with an emphasis on allowing Americans to discover and understand those risks. By building awareness, our hope is that every individual is empowered to take steps to reduce their risk exposure to flooding, as well as that of their communities—today and in the future. First Street created a nationwide assessment of flood risk for the CONUS and DC, and is now sharing that assessment through Flood Factor™.

genomic makeup data

Stanford researchers accelerate autism research by sharing genomic data in the cloud

In 2014, the Wall Lab at Stanford University sought to answer one of the most pressing questions in neuroscience: What genes influence autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), this neurodevelopmental disorder affects roughly one in 54 children in America and is on the rise—nearly tripling since 1992. In the lab’s study of ASD genetics, they chose the cloud—and a unique experimental approach—to speed the time to science.

Burned hill at Big Sur

How artificial intelligence helps monitor forest dryness

Forest wildfire risk is increasing in the western United States. In the past five decades, large wildfire frequency and the area destroyed have risen by more than four and six times, respectively. The increased risk posed by wildfires has prompted scientists to try to assess wildfire risk to help inform whether to move people to safety before disastrous wildfires occur.

AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region

AWS expands to South Africa, deepening roots in public sector

In April, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region. AWS has a long history in South Africa and numerous public sector organizations in the region are already spearheading technological innovations in the cloud. From healthcare to education, these four public sector organizations are leading innovation in the public sector in the Region.