Amazon’s Machine Learning University’s online programmes will be available to the general public. Three accelerated online courses are currently available, and this will be expanded to include nine more in-depth courses before year’s end. Beginning in 2021, all MLU classes will be available via on-demand video, along with associated coding materials. 

The three online courses cover natural language processing (the machine understanding of human language), computer vision (the machine understanding of images and video), and tabular data (machine learning associated with spreadsheet-like tables). Founded in 2016, MLU’s curriculum is designed to sharpen the skills of current ML practitioners and also help the neophytes with tools to deploy machine learning for their projects. Classes are taught by Amazon ML experts.

Machine learning is the centre of Amazon’s business operations that optimises companies supply chain and helps the company to improve its product forecasts and is used by Alexa, Amazon Go and Amazon.com.

MLU’s core curriculum requires a multi-week study of the mathematics that are foundational to ML and AI, but the program also now offers accelerated courseware, such as the initial classes being made publicly available, that gives students a quick overview of a topic. Often, a class will be created to address a specific business problem, such as in computer vision, or natural language processing. In other cases, advances in machine learning suggest changes to the curriculum.

   “Machine Learning University got its start from the idea that we were going to have a difficult time finding enough people with ML skills to meet our needs,” says Brent Werness, an AWS research scientist, MLU’s academic director. “Universities can’t develop students with ML skills fast enough for Amazon, much less for all the other companies out there. By going public with the classes, we are contributing to the scientific community on the topic of machine learning, and making machine learning more democratic,” Werness adds. “This field isn’t limited to individuals with advanced science degrees, or technical backgrounds. This initiative to bring our courseware online represents a step toward lowering barriers for software developers, students and other builders who want to get started with practical machine learning,” he says.  

Demand for machine-learning classes is certain to grow as the technology pervades more and more areas of business. MLU is currently rebuilding its curriculum, in part to further integrate ‘Dive into Deep Learning’ into class sessions.

“We want to make sure we’re teaching the important things upfront and that we’re making good use of students’ time,” he says. “With the transition to working from home, it’s even harder now for class participants to set aside multiple hours of time. We want to be flexible in how people can take these classes.”