Amazon Web Services launches AWS Educate

AWS Educate is designed to make it easy for educators to find cloud-related course content quickly and easily, incorporate cloud technology into their teaching curriculum, and provide students with hands-on experience with cloud technology - with AWS credits to make the cloud more affordable. AWS Educate is free for educational institutions, educators and students to join, following AWS's approval of their application.

Cloud computing has rapidly transformed the way businesses and organisations across industries operate and innovate, such as researchers using the cloud to study genomics, non-profits using data analytics to target donors better, start-ups creating disruptive new applications, or established companies bringing new innovations to market faster. Cloud computing has become the default environment not just for building and deploying applications, but it has also become a key driver for transforming organisational innovation and business operations. As such, there is a growing demand for developers, information technology (IT) professionals, and forward-thinking business leaders with demonstrated knowledge of cloud computing. AWS Educate empowers educators with training, tools, and technologies to help students develop the skills to design, deploy and operate applications in the AWS Cloud.

Put big ideas into action

"For years, the AWS educational grants programme has put cloud technology in the hands of educators and students, giving them the ability to put big ideas into action. We've seen students develop assistive computer vision technology in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind, and aspiring entrepreneurs take a web start-up from conception to launch within 60 hours," said Teresa Carlson, Vice-President, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS. "Based on the feedback and success of our grant recipients and the global need for cloud-skilled workers, we developed AWS Educate to help even more students learn cloud technology at first hand in the classroom. We're pleased to offer AWS Educate to educators, students and educational institutions around the world."

By joining the programme, educator and student members receive several benefits, including:

• AWS credits: Teachers and students can apply for and redeem AWS credits for eligible services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon CloudFront, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Amazon EMR), Amazon Redshift, and Amazon Glacier. While students and educators at any educational institution may join the programme, those affiliated with an institution that becomes a member may receive additional AWS credits;

• Web-based training and self-paced labs: Access to self-paced labs can help teachers and students gain hands-on experience working with AWS technologies; additionally, teachers receive online access to AWS Essentials courses for a thorough technical overview of AWS products and common solutions;

• Collaboration forums: Teachers and students can attend in-person and virtual events designed to help the AWS Educate community incorporate cloud technology into coursework; additionally, educators have access to a forum in which they can join discussions with other AWS Educators;

• AWS resources: All AWS Educate members have access to a wide library of learning materials they may use in their classrooms, including webinars on best practices, instructional videos on AWS services, and customer case studies; and

• Teacher content: Teachers can access and share professional development materials to help them incorporate cloud technology into their coursework. Currently, AWS Educate houses over 100 teacher-uploaded materials from many of the top computer science universities around the world, including Harvard University, Stanford University, and Cornell Tech. Materials include a wide range of full courses, syllabi, lectures, and homework assignments, for example: lectures, videos, and assignments from University of Pennsylvania Professor Zack Ives' Scalable and Cloud Computing class; University of Toronto's Eyal de Lara's Introduction to Cloud Computing class; and University of Washington's Magdalena Balazinska's Introduction to Data Management class.

For more information or to join AWS Educate, go to www.awseducate.com.