What is Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free, open-source code editor developed by Microsoft. It is widely used for programming, supporting multiple programming languages with features such as debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring. It is lightweight, yet powerful, and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Top Use Cases of Visual Studio Code

1. Web Development: Supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and modern frameworks and libraries like React, Angular, and Vue.js.
2. Cloud-Native Development: Integrated with Azure and supports Docker and Kubernetes for developing and deploying microservices.
3. Data Science: Supports Python with extensions for Jupyter Notebooks, data visualization, and machine learning.
4. Application Development: Supports languages like C#, Java, Python, and others, useful for both desktop and mobile application development.
5. Extension Development: Developers can create their own extensions to add new languages, themes, debuggers, and to connect to additional services.

Features of Visual Studio Code

• IntelliSense: Provides smart completions based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules.
• Debugging: Built-in debugging support for Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript, with extensions for other languages like Python and PHP.
• Git Integration: Offers built-in Git commands for committing, pulling, and pushing changes to a repository.
• Extensions: A rich ecosystem of extensions to enhance functionality for different languages and tools.
• Customizable: Highly customizable through JSON settings, allowing users to tweak the editor’s appearance and behavior.

Workflow of Visual Studio Code

1. Setup: Install VS Code and relevant extensions for your development environment.
2. Project Initialization: Open or create a new project and configure workspace settings.
3. Coding: Write code with IntelliSense assistance for more efficient coding.
4. Version Control: Use integrated Git support for version control.
5. Debugging: Use the built-in debugger to set breakpoints, inspect variables, and step through code.
6. Testing and Deployment: Utilize extensions for deploying applications or running tests.

How Visual Studio Code Works & Architecture

Visual Studio Code operates on an architecture that separates the frontend (the editor itself, which runs as a web application) from the backend services. The backend is powered by Node.js, which handles extensions and integrations. This separation ensures that VS Code remains responsive, regardless of what operations are being executed in the background.

How to Install and Configure Visual Studio Code

1. Download and Install: Go to the Visual Studio Code website, download the appropriate version for your OS, and install it.
2. Open and Setup: Open VS Code and install essential extensions (e.g., for Python, install the Python extension).
3. Configure Settings: Customize settings by accessing File -> Preferences -> Settings. Configure user and workspace settings as needed.

Step-by-Step Tutorials for Visual Studio Code: “Hello World” Program

Example with Python:

Install Python Extension: From the extensions tab, search for ‘Python’ and install it.

1. Create a New File:
   • Open VS Code, then go to File > New File and save it with an appropriate name, like hello_world.py if you are using Python.
2. Write the Code:
   • For a Python file, enter: print("Hello, World!")
3. Run the Program:
   • Open the integrated terminal (Terminal > New Terminal) and type python hello_world.py to execute the code.
4. View Output:
   • The message “Hello, World!” will be displayed in the terminal, indicating that your program has run successfully.

Thanks for visiting

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What is Typescript?

Typescript is a programming language developed by Microsoft that is a superset of JavaScript. It adds static typing capabilities to JavaScript, allowing developers to catch errors and improve code quality during development. TypeScript ultimately compiles down to plain JavaScript code.

What are the top use cases of Typescript?

TypeScript is a versatile language that can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of the top use cases of TypeScript include:

• Web development: TypeScript is a popular choice for developing web applications, as it can help to improve the maintainability and performance of code.
• Server-side development: TypeScript can also be used for server-side development, such as Node.js applications.
• Mobile development: TypeScript can be used to develop mobile applications for both Android and iOS.
• Desktop development: TypeScript can also be used to develop desktop applications.
• Game development: TypeScript is a popular choice for game development, as it can help to improve the performance and maintainability of code.

What are the features of Typescript?

TypeScript offers a number of features that make it a powerful and versatile language. Some of the key features of TypeScript include:

• Static typing: TypeScript is a statically typed language, which means that the types of variables and expressions are checked at compile time. This helps to prevent errors and make your code more reliable.
• Object-oriented programming: TypeScript supports object-oriented programming, which makes it a good choice for developing large and complex applications.
• Cross-platform: Cross-platform in Typescript refers to the ability of the code written in Typescript to run and work on multiple platforms or environments, such as web browsers, mobile devices (iOS, Android), desktop applications (Windows, macOS), and even server-side environments (Node.js).
• Static type checking: Static type checking in TypeScript is a process that ensures the correctness of types at compile-time. It checks the types of variables, function parameters, and return values based on their type annotations. This helps identify potential errors and avoid type-related bugs during development, enhancing code quality and maintainability.
• Functional programming: TypeScript also supports functional programming, which can be useful for developing code that is more concise and easier to read.
• Asynchronous programming: TypeScript supports asynchronous programming, which is essential for developing efficient and responsive applications.
• Modules: TypeScript supports modules, which makes it easy to organize your code and improve its readability.

What is the workflow of Typescript?

The workflow of TypeScript typically involves the following steps:

1. Install and configure TypeScript: TypeScript can be installed via npm using the command `npm install -g typescript`. A `tsconfig.json` file is commonly used to configure compilation options.

2. Write TypeScript code: Create a `.ts` file and write TypeScript code with type annotations, interfaces, and classes.

3. Compile TypeScript: Run the command `tsc` in the command line to compile TypeScript code into JavaScript.

4. Use the compiled JavaScript: The TypeScript compiler generates a `.js` file that can be used in any JavaScript environment or included in HTML files.

How Typescript Works & Architecture?

Here is how TypeScript works:

1. The TypeScript compiler reads your TypeScript code.
2. The compiler checks your code for errors, including type errors.
3. If there are no errors, the compiler converts your TypeScript code to JavaScript.
4. The JavaScript code is then executed.

The TypeScript compiler is written in TypeScript itself. This makes it easy to extend the compiler with new features.

The TypeScript architecture is divided into three layers:

• Parser: The parser reads your TypeScript code and converts it into an abstract syntax tree (AST).
• Checker: The checker checks the AST for errors, including type errors.
• Generator: The generator converts the AST back into JavaScript code.

How to Install and Configure Typescript?

To install and configure TypeScript, follow these steps:

Step 1: Install Node.js

– TypeScript requires Node.js to be installed on your computer.

– Visit https://nodejs.org and download the appropriate installer for your operating system.

– Run the installer and follow the instructions to complete the installation.

Step 2: Install TypeScript

– Open a terminal or command prompt.

– Use the following command to install TypeScript globally:

npm install -g typescript

Step 3: Verify the Installation

– To verify that TypeScript is installed, enter the following command in the terminal:

tsc --version

– If it shows the version number, TypeScript is installed correctly.

Step 4: Create a TypeScript Configuration File (optional)

– Create a new folder for your TypeScript project.

– Open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to the project folder.

– Run the following command to initialize a TypeScript project and create a tsconfig.json file:

tsc --init

– This command creates a default tsconfig.json file in the project folder.

Step 5: Configure the tsconfig.json File (optional)

– Open the tsconfig.json file in a text editor.

– Update the compiler options based on your needs. For example, you can change the “target” option to specify the version of ECMAScript you are compiling to, or the “outDir” option to specify the output folder for the compiled JavaScript files.

– For more information, refer to the TypeScript documentation on compiler options: https://www.typescriptlang.org/tsconfig

Step 6: Write TypeScript code

– Create a new .ts file in your project folder.

– Write TypeScript code in the file.

– For example, you can create a file named `app.ts`:

let message: string = "Hello, TypeScript!";
console.log(message);

Step 7: Compile TypeScript to JavaScript

– Open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to the project folder.

– Run the following command to compile the TypeScript code to JavaScript:

tsc app.ts

– This command generates a corresponding JavaScript file (`app.js` in this example) in the same folder.

That’s it! You have successfully installed and configured TypeScript.

Step by Step Tutorials for Typescript for the hello world program

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to write a “hello world” program in TypeScript:

1. Create a new file called hello.ts.
2. Write the following code in the file:

console.log("hello world");

3. Save the file.
4. Compile the code by running the following command:

tsc hello.ts

5. This will create a file called hello.js.
6. Run the JavaScript file by running the following command:

node hello.js

This will print the message “hello world” to the console.

Here is a breakdown of the code:

• The console.log() function is used to print a message to the console.
• The string literal “hello world” is the message that will be printed to the console.

The tsc command is used to compile TypeScript code to JavaScript. The hello.ts file is the TypeScript file that we want to compile.

The node command is used to run JavaScript code. The hello.js file is the JavaScript file that we want to run.

The post What is typescript and How Typescript Works & Architecture? appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

Start-up ecosystems thrive in the UAE with a boom in Big Data

A company or a business traditionally starts from scratch. From planning to finance to management and execution, start-up ecosystems have faced challenges to establish themselves. Today, the business world is productive, a lot more supportive, and believes in two-way progression. Tech influencers and game-changers across the world are setting the trend of helping entrepreneurial ecosystems thrive. Microsoft supports the fields of tech and business to flourish in the emerging new area of Big Data at Hub71.

The world lives and runs on technology, it exists and procreates over technology. Technology on the other hand is full of Big Data. This data has now become “the new oil” for start-up ecosystems. Recent Global Data research cites the examples of 3.5 billion Google searches and 1.3 billion internet-of-things connections per day, and 254 Exabytes (one Exabyte is a billion gigabytes) of mobile broadband data traffic per year. Big data is a combination of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data collected by organizations that can be mined for information and used in machine learning projects, predictive modeling, and other advanced analytics applications.

The digital data explosion began in 2010 and has advanced remarkably. Statistics predict it is increasing even more up to 26% by 2022. Big data technologies help companies store large volumes of data while enabling significant cost benefits. Such technologies include cloud-based analytics and Hadoop. They help businesses analyze information and improve decision-making. Furthermore, data breaches pose the need for enhanced security, which technology applications can solve.

The Middle East nations on the other hand are escalating increasingly in terms of health tech, big data, property tech, artificial intelligence, etc. It has become a home for start-up ecosystems and tech in contemporary times. Magnitt, a start-up data analytics company states that more than 60% of investment funding for start-ups in the MENA region was given to the projects based in the UAE in 2019.

The global tech conglomerates like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Twitter have already established their MENA Headquarters in the UAE. Hub71, which is located in the heart of Abu Dhabi, has built a niche between the well-established companies to those of budding ones. Its networking capability, its accessibility in terms of capital, communication have all paved a way for Hub71 to grow as an emerging global marketing giant.

“There is a strong start-up culture and plenty of advice available for young entrepreneurs looking for their next move into the Middle East. Microsoft is a leading light in the big data industry across seven technology segments, including data security, storage, processing, aggregation, and integration. The UAE has become a hub in many areas, including technology” stated Sayed Hashish, general manager for Microsoft UAE that has been operating its services from the past 25 years as the strategic partner for Hub71.  He also adds that there is a lot of potential for start-up culture in the UAE for young aspiring entrepreneurs. Microsoft on the other hand, is a torch bearer across seven technological segments, including data security, storage, processing, aggregation and integration.

Hashish said that Microsoft has always believed in focusing on start-ups as its core value. He also mentioned that Hub71 was launched with the central theme of encouraging and establishing start-ups. The timing was absolutely perfect in his view.

Another core mission of Microsoft was to empower every business to turn the game around the planet and Microsoft has already fulfilled that. Apart from building huge data centers operating in the region, the company, which is the only one in the US to still be worth more than US$1trn after the coronavirus pandemic, has made plenty of time to mentor newer companies.

Microsoft and its services have always been incredible in many ways. Atif Mahmoud, Founder of British edtech start-up Teacherly said that opening the company’s second office in Abu Dhabi (the first was in London) had given his start-up the boost it needed. He then said that the tech giant joining hands with his once- upon time small start-up was a dream come true.

Putting it in a nutshell, Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 literally is reigning in the global tech-business industry with loads of opportunities for aspiring young entrepreneurs wishing to establish start-ups to flourish in Big Data and Microsoft is doing all it can to accelerate the global industry upwards.

The post GROWTH IN BIG DATA MAKES UAE A HOTBED FOR INVESTMENTS: MICROSOFT LENDS HELP appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

Microsoft claims its new PyTorch Enterprise on Microsoft Azure is the first offering from a cloud platform to provide enterprise support for PyTorch, the popular open source deep learning framework.

Along with that enterprise support, it comes with prioritized troubleshooting and also integrates with other Azure solutions, such as Azure Machine Learning.

PyTorch is an open source machine learning/deep learning framework based on the Torch library, used for applications such as computer vision and natural language processing, driven by Facebook’s AI Research lab, according to Wikipedia.

Regular Visual Studio Magazine readers will know that it’s also a favorite tool of our own data science guru, Dr. James McCaffrey of Microsoft Research, who authors regular hands-on PyTorch-based tutorials for our Data Science Lab.

The new offering comes after Microsoft teamed up with Facebook to become a founding member of the PyTorch Enterprise Support Program, which helps service providers develop and offer tailored enterprise-grade support to their customers.

The enterprise support initiative was reportedly sparked by feedback from customers, who found it easy to get started with PyTorch but not so easy to implement complicated real-world enterprise production initiatives. Thus Microsoft will provide commercial support for the public PyTorch codebase. “Each release will be supported for as long as it is current,” Microsoft said in a recent blog post. “In addition, one PyTorch release will be selected for LTS every year. Such releases will be supported for two years, enabling a stable production experience without frequent major upgrade investment.”

Supported configurations include:

• PyTorch: version 1.8.1 and up.
• Libraries: torch, torchaudio, torchvision, torchtext, onnxruntime, and torch-tb-profiler.
• Python: version 3.6 and up.
• NVIDIA CUDA: versions 10.2 and 11.1.
• Operating systems: Windows 10, Debian 9, Debian 10, Ubuntu 16.04.7 LTS, and Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (x86_64 architecture only).

It does not, however, support C++ or Java interfaces, or PyTorch libraries and features marked “experimental and subject to change” including TorchServe and Pipeline Parallelism.

To be eligible at no additional cost, enterprise customers must join Microsoft’s Premier or Unified support programs. For such organizations, as part of the aforementioned prioritized troubleshooting, “The dedicated PyTorch team in Azure will prioritize, develop, and deliver hotfixes to customers as needed. These hotfixes will get tested and will be included in future PyTorch releases. In addition, Microsoft will extensively test PyTorch releases for performance regressions with continuous integration and realistic, demanding workloads from internal Microsoft applications.”

Microsoft is heavily invested in the PyTorch ecosystem, noting that the company’s data scientists like Dr. McCaffrey use PyTorch as the primary framework to develop models to enhance Office 365, Bing, Xbox and other offerings. That investment includes projects such as PyTorch Profiler, ONNX Runtime on PyTorch, PyTorch on Windows, DeepSpeed and more.

For now, PyTorch Enterprise is available on Azure Machine Learning and Data Science Virtual Machines (DSVM), coming soon to Azure Synapse Analytics.

The post Microsoft Offers Deep Learning Support with PyTorch Enterprise on Microsoft Azure appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

Recently, Microsoft held its annual global IT conference, Microsoft Ignite 2021, virtually. The event announced a number of AI-based features and updates across the cloud platform Azure and other business applications. 

Like every year, the session started with a keynote speech from CEO Satya Nadela. His talk focused on the critical role of the public cloud.

During the keynote speech, Nadella touched upon five key attributes that will drive the next generation of innovation in cloud: 

• Ubiquitous and decentralised computing
• Empowered creators & communities at every place
• Expanded economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce
• Sovereign data and ambient intelligence
• Trust by design

Let’s look at all the machine learning updates and features announced at the recent Ignite 2021 event. 

Alex Kipman, Mixed Reality Technical Fellow at Microsoft, unveiled Microsoft Mesh — a new mixed-reality platform powered by Azure. Microsoft Mesh enables presence and shared experiences from anywhere on any device through mixed reality applications. With the Microsoft Mesh SDK, you can build collaborative, cross-platform mixed reality applications faster using AI-powered tools for avatars, holoportation, spatial rendering, and more. Mesh contains tools to enable holographic rendering, immersive experiences, spatial maps, and multi-user sync. 

Microsoft has announced the public preview of Azure Percept. Percept is a platform of hardware and services that intends to simplify the ways in which customers can use Azure AI technologies on the edge, including taking advantage of Azure cloud offerings such as device management, AI model development and analytics. 

Azure Percept will assist customers in building and managing edge AI solutions. The platform intends to simplify the process of developing, training and deploying edge AI solutions. Roanne Sones, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft’s edge and platform group, said the goal of this new solution is to give customers a single, end-to-end system, from the hardware to the AI capabilities, that “just works” without a lot of technical know-how.

Azure Purview

To enable customers to discover and govern data, Microsoft introduced its unified governance service called Azure Purview. Users can now use Azure Purview to scan Azure Synapse workspaces across serverless and dedicated SQL pools.

Azure Arc is a set of technologies that extends Azure management and services to any infrastructure. The developers at Microsoft created Azure Arc to enable the flexibility and agility customers are seeking to innovate anywhere while providing governance and security. Azure Arc enables customers to run Azure services in any Kubernetes environment, whether it’s on-premises, multi-cloud or at the edge. At Ignite 2021, the team announced the expansion of  Azure Arc enabled services to include Azure Machine Learning. Now, users can enable the Azure Machine Learning agent to run on any OSS Kubernetes cluster that Azure Arc supports.

Azure Synapse Pathway

Azure Synapse Pathway helps customers simplify their migration experience to Azure Synapse. With this tool, users can now scan their source systems and automatically translate their existing scripts into TSQL. Azure Synapse Pathway will support customers migrating from Teradata, Snowflake, Netezza, AWS Redshift, SQL Server, and Google BigQuery. 

Semantic Search

Semantic Search on Azure Cognitive Search is said to offer the best combination of search relevance, developer experience, and cloud service capabilities available on the market. At the heart of Azure Cognitive Search is its full text, keyword-based search engine built on the BM25 algorithm. With Semantic Search, users can avail a ranking algorithm that will use deep neural networks to rank the articles based on how “meaningful” they are relative to the query. 

Form Recognizer is an Azure Cognitive Service and an AI-powered document extraction service that understands any document. The service applies advanced machine learning techniques to accurately extract the text, key or value pairs as well as tables from documents. The document extraction service has several features, such as simple extraction, customised results, flexible deployment, among others.

The post All The Machine Learning Features Announced At Microsoft Ignite 2021 appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

For the fifth year in a row, Harvard, MIT, Microsoft Research New England, and now the Broad Institute, are proud to collaborate with Stanford University to bring the Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This virtual, one-day technical conference will feature an all-female lineup of speakers from academia and industry, to talk about the latest data science-related research in a number of domains, to learn how leading-edge companies are leveraging data science for success, and to connect with potential mentors, collaborators, and others in the field.

WiDS Cambridge is an independent event that is organized by Harvard, MIT, Microsoft Research New England, and the Broad Institute, as part of the annual WiDS Worldwide conference organized by Stanford University and an estimated 150+ locations worldwide, which features outstanding women doing outstanding work in the field of data science. All genders are invited to attend all WiDS Worldwide conference events.

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Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Create Impressive Products for Disabled People

Technology is an excellent way to enhance the lives of people with disabilities. With the advent of artificial intelligence, several avenues of research have opened up that focus on enhancing the lives of people with impairment.

For instance, Facebook has designed an AI tool that can help the blind “see” again. This AI model explains the images on the Facebook feed of a blind person, so the person using the screen reader gets an idea of what is going on in the picture. This means people with visual impairment no longer have to hear a screen reader say “Photo” by “John Doe.” Google’s ‘Look to Speak’ app uses machine learning and computer vision to allow users to control their devices with their eyes

Similarly, OrCam, a Jerusalem-based company, has developed an AI-based called OrCam Read. This handheld device can read full pages or screens of text aloud from any printed or digital surface, including newspapers, books, product labels, and computers and smartphones. Through this device, OrCam aims to help people with reading challenges, such as dyslexia, mild to moderate vision loss, reading fatigue, as well as for those who read large volumes of text.

Even company giants like Microsoft have started a five-year program called ‘AI for Accessibility,’ with an investment of US$25 million, aiming to put AI in the hands of developers to make the world more accessible by providing AI solutions for the specially-abled. Artificial intelligence not only assists people with physical disabilities but is also helping people struggling with learning problems and mental health issues. E.g., Microsoft’s Windows Hello uses biometric login, i.e., fingerprint, face, or iris, which can work for people with physical disabilities or those with dyslexia who might struggle to remember passwords. AI chatbots like Woebot and Wysa are ensuring the availability of consultation for mental health woes, beyond the therapist hours 24/7.

Meanwhile, people suffering from epilepsy can have seizures from blinking lights and animations. This is why accessiBe, a web accessibility platform enables epileptic users to disable various types of animation, such as GIFs and videos so that they can browse the web without complications. Voiceitt is an app for people with speech impediments, including both those who need it temporarily after strokes and brain injuries, and those with more long-term conditions like cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s, and Down’s syndrome. The app uses machine learning to pick up speakers’ unique speech patterns, recognize any mispronunciations, and rectify them before creating an audio or text output. Livio AI, developed by Starkey, an AI medical device company, is a hearing aid that will enhance the hearing experience by quieting all the external noise from the environment and tracking health-related data to enable patients to seek help during emergencies.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles also promise to provide people with disabilities more mobility than ever before. Once the self-driving vehicles are fully integrated into society, they can be a resourceful asset for people with different disabilities, including motor impairment. These people would no longer be dependent on other people or public transport.

Further, most of the existing testing methods are highly ineffective at pinpointing learning disabilities like dyslexia or dyscalculia. Artificial Intelligence can help teachers and healthcare professionals diagnose early signs of such conditions and help the students accordingly. For instance, Australian startup Dystech has developed a screening app for early detection of such learning disorders.

Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dystech employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to screen test if the user has dyslexia or dysgraphia. For the former, the app uses datasets of audio recording from both dyslexic and non-dyslexic adults and children to train the AI and relies on users reading aloud words that appear on the screen while being recorded using their smart device during assessment . And for dysgraphia it uses a photo of a handwritten text for screening. After subjected to a 10-minute screening test, app informs users about their likelihood of having dyslexia or dysgraphia.

The post HOW IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TRANSFORMING THE LIVES OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES? appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

As more and more people work from home and at times have no control over jarring sounds in the background, Microsoft is set to release a new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based noise suppression tool in its video conferencing app Teams.

The real time noise suppression in Microsoft Teams will automatically remove background noise during the video meetings.

AI-based noise suppression works by analyzing an individual’s audio feed and using specially trained deep neural networks to filter out the noise and retain only the speech signal, reports MSPoweruser.

“Users will now have control over how much noise suppression they want. The ‘High’ setting is new and will suppress more background noise,” the report mentioned.

The feature is likely to be generally available in November for Windows 10, 7 and 8.1 users.

Microsoft last month announced several new capabilities to help people stay connected, collaborate and build solutions in its video meet app.

Breakout rooms will allow meeting organisers to split up participants into smaller groups to facilitate brainstorming sessions or workgroup discussions.

Coming later this year, custom layouts will allow for a more dynamic content viewing experience and enable presenters to customise how content shows up for participants during a meeting.

Microsoft Teams will also have the option for a recap with the meeting recording, transcript, chat, shared files and more that can be automatically shared in the meeting Chat tab and viewable in the Details tab for each meeting.

Teams will have a streamlined view that shows contacts, voicemail and calling history at once, making it easier to initiate or return a call with a single click.

A new search experience in Teams, powered by Microsoft Search and available late this year, will make finding messages, people, answers, and files faster and more intuitive.

Also, new personal well-being features like a virtual commute, integration with apps like Headspace, and an emotional check-in experience will be available in the first half of 2021.

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Course takes individuals with zero industry experience, to job-ready analysts in just six months

The Australian Institute of ICT (AIICT) has announced today a new ‘Certified Data Science Professional’ course featuring Microsoft certification content for Data Science. AIICT is a start-up launched in 2019 by DDLS, one of Australia’s largest providers of corporate IT and cybersecurity training, and Microsoft Gold Learning Partner.

The course is designed specifically for aspiring machine learning and data science professionals and takes individuals with zero industry experience, to job-ready analysts in just six months.

“AIICT always aims to provide the most contemporary, relevant and future-focused skills for students to succeed – and Data Science is an area that is experiencing remarkable growth” said Jon Lang, CEO of DDLS. “The flexibility of the Certified Data Science Professional course structure is a key element in meeting the skyrocketing demand in the field – we need data scientists right now, and this new course enables an individual to start whenever they are ready, and enter into a well-paying role in just six months”, added Lang.

Data science is one of the key emerging occupations expected to see significant growth in the next few years, according to the National Skills Commission. Between 2015 and 2019, the occupation experienced a growth rate of 492%[1], with Data scientists in Australia currently reporting a median salary of $92K[2].

The Certified Data Science Professional course prepares individuals for a role as a junior data scientist, and through its unique Industry Partner Program, AIICT connects recent graduates with leading employers to help them secure a front-line role, while simultaneously tackling skills shortages in the field.

The course incorporates four globally recognised Microsoft Certifications, which focus on the fundamentals of data, artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft Azure, and advancing to the Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate certification.

“We are pleased about the launch of this new data science offering, especially in such a high-demand area. By combining Microsoft’s certifications, with AIICT’s course delivery and flexible study options, this course will enable the next round of job-ready data scientists for the Australian market,” said Geoff Hirsch, Senior Director of Microsoft’s Learning Partner Channel.

Some of the course’s key learning outcomes include:
Learning about the data science process and the role of the data scientist
Understanding the fundamentals of database and artificial intelligence concepts in a cloud environment, and specifically in Azure
Gaining the skills in driving automation across the entire data science process
Gaining knowledge of the machine learning pipeline from beginning to end, including the management and monitoring of machine learning models
Students can also access learning material on key technologies which are critical to data science such as SQL, Python and R.
Furthermore, the course gives students access to unique hands-on labs powered by CloudSwyft, which enable them to develop their real-world skills in a live environment, ensuring they are job-ready on course completion.

“CloudSwyft is highly passionate about supporting the adoption of future-ready skills across Australia. Our Hands-on Labs integration allows learners to gain practical technology experience through real world applications in live, cloud-based environments, ensuring they are ready for the exciting next step in their technology careers. We are thrilled to partner with DDLS, AIICT and Microsoft on the Data Science Professional Course” said Dann Angelo De Guzman, Founder and CEO of CloudSwyft.

AIICT operates using a unique self-paced course schedule, which is not bound by the traditional academic structures of terms and semesters. The flexible learning options allow students to build an online learning schedule around their life and encourages people who may not have considered a career in data science as an option previously, to undertake training.

Whilst the course is delivered remotely, the AIICT platform allows students to join a community of like-minded individuals for communication and collaboration as they progress through the course.

The post AIICT announces Certified Data Science Professional course featuring Microsoft content appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

New Delhi: SoftBank-owned UK chipmaker Arm has partnered with Microsoft to create Azure-based tools to enable developers transfer data from Arm-based Internet of Things (IoT) devices to Azure Cloud. The partnership will enable developers to easily target a broad range of Arm-based devices like intelligent computer-vision-enabled cameras, connected vehicles, AI gateways and intelligent appliances.

With over 30 billion active IoT devices in the world with 400 per cent growth over the past three years, the industry is moving incredibly fast. “Arm’s leading silicon architecture combined with their broad ecosystem and commitment to optimising developer experiences will enable this partnership to accelerate AI innovation for IoT devices, delivering better solutions and a better future for end-users,” said Moe Tanabian, Vice President, General Manager-Azure Edge Devices.

In one of the biggest tech deals, graphics giant NVIDIA in September announced it is acquiring Arm for $40 billion with an aim to create a premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft is working closely with the silicon ecosystem to launch an Azure-Ready Silicon programme.

“We are committed to helping foster innovation and diversity within the broader silicon and device ecosystems, and making it easy, fast, and cost-effective for our customers,” Microsoft said in a blog post on Thursday. “Our collaboration with Arm to facilitate an end-to-end AI toolchain to simplify development is an important part of this strategy”.

The post Microsoft, chip maker Arm to boost AI innovation for IoT devices appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.