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

  • AI robot with cybersecurity symbol on its chest

    Microsoft Adds New Agentic AI Tools to Security Copilot

    Microsoft has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered cybersecurity platform, introducing a suite of autonomous agents to help organizations counter rising threats and manage the growing complexity of cloud and AI security.

  • laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Introduces AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has launched Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.