Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


NOVA Program Taps AWS to Train Marines in Data Intelligence

  • By Sara Friedman
  • 07/17/19

Northern Virginia Community College is working with the U.S. Marine Corps and Amazon Web Services to develop a set of courses focused on data intelligence. The new courses will cover cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) topics.

To complete the program, Marines take 31 credits at NOVA as well as a course offered by the Marine Corps focused on military-specific components. Participants can then go on to obtain an associate applied science degree in information systems technology at NOVA.

The courses were developed with help from the Amazon Web Services Educate program. Coursework in ML and AI will utilize AWS Educate's Machine Learning Pathway, which includes access to Amazon SageMaker, a tool for building, training and deploying ML models. NOVA's course of study will also prepare Marines to obtain a certificate to become an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.

"We have worked side-by-side with the [Marine Corps] while utilizing the AWS console and having access to AWS Educate resources, to design AI and ML coursework to meet the needs of both the USMC and our industry community. Even more exciting is that we see this as a first step to what could be many additional cutting-edge programs of study to support our U.S. Armed Forces," said Chad Knights, NOVA's provost for information and engineering technology.

The new set of courses at NOVA is expected to launch this fall. The Marine Corps is also exploring opportunities to expand the NOVA partnership to other IT and cyber occupational fields.

This new offering is the latest collaboration between NOVA and AWS. In June, NOVA and AWS announced a new program that will allow students to earn an associate degree in cloud computing at NOVA and transfer to George Mason University to complete a bachelor's degree.

About the Author

Sara Friedman is a reporter/producer for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe covering education policy and a wide range of other public-sector IT topics.

Friedman is a graduate of Ithaca College, where she studied journalism, politics and international communications.

Friedman can be contacted at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @SaraEFriedman.

Click here for previous articles by Friedman.


Featured

  • cyber security padlock

    AI Adoption Forces Trade-Off Between Speed and Identity Security, Study Finds

    AI adoption is forcing enterprises to trade security for speed — and identity controls are the first casualty, according to a new report from Delinea, a provider of identity security solutions for both human and AI agent identities.

  • silhouette of business person facing wall of data

    Why AI Strategy Belongs in the President's Office

    Institutions that are succeeding with AI share one thing in common, and it is not a better committee, a larger budget, or a more sophisticated technology stack. It is a president who never handed off the steering wheel.

  • large group of college students sitting on an academic quad

    Student Readiness: Learning to Learn

    Melissa Loble, Instructure's chief academic officer, recommends a focus on 'readiness' as a broader concept as we try to understand how to build meaningful education experiences that can form a bridge from the university to the workplace. Here, we ask Loble what readiness is and how to offer students the ability to 'learn to learn'.

  • businesspeople in silhouette with colorful network lines

    Report: AI Will Reshape Work More than Replace It, but Global Impact Is Uneven

    Richer countries face greater exposure to AI-driven changes than developing countries, which are less exposed to AI but risk being left behind, according to a joint report from the International Labour Organization and World Bank.