Bertelsmann collaborates with Udacity to offer scholarships for cloud, data, and AI skills. Both organizations have joined hands to offer scholarships since 2019 to 50,000 learners. After last years’ scholarships in cloud, data, and AI, this will be the third association to offer scholarships.
Just like most of the scholarships by Udacity, this scholarship will also have two phrases — challenge course and full Nanodegree program. Since there are three tracks — Cloud, Data, and AI, there will be three different introductory courses and Nanodegree programs.
You will be required to complete the introductory course of the respective tracks, and then based on the performance, you will the advance Nanodegree courses like Azure Cloud Architect, Business Analyst, Introduction to Machine Learning with TensorFlow.
Udacity started accepting applications for different tracks on October 5, 2021, the application phase will end on November 30, 2021. A total of 15000 will be selected for the challenge course, and 1600 will move to the second phase to get the full Nanodegree program.
Although 18 or above aged learners can apply for the scholarship, there are a few prerequisites like Python programming and 2+ years in developing apps, and more, especially for the Cloud and AI track. However, the data track has no prerequisite.
You will have 2 months to complete the challenge course, which starts on December 14, 2021, and ends on February 14, 2022. The Nanodegree program will be a 6 months course, which commences on March 1, 2022, and ends on August 31, 2022.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati announced that it would offer undergraduate (UG) B.Tech courses in artificial intelligence and data science. The course will help learners to enter various industries such as data architecture, data engineering, data analysis, and many more.
The first batch of students will be selected from the counseling sessions of JEE advanced 2021. The newly launched course will deal with critical concepts related to artificial intelligence and data science.
The course will also include modules from other related fields like computer science, mathematics, statistics, electrical engineering, and electronics.
Director of IIT Guwahati, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, said, “The vast opportunities that Data Science and Artificial Intelligence field offers will fulfill the demands of having sufficiently qualified graduates to serve the nation in the future in areas requiring expertise in AI and Data Analytics.”
He further added that the graduates of this newly launched course would play a vital role in industries like technology, business, healthcare, disaster management, policy formulations, and many others. The course will be offered by the Mehta Family School of Data Science that was established recently.
Students will also get a chance to earn a minor in any other discipline. The course aims to provide both theoretical and practical knowledge to the students that would make them industry-ready. The program is a step forward towards making the country more innovation-oriented.
Technology giant Microsoft launches its new initiative named AI innovate to help tech startups grow in India. Microsoft will provide the necessary guidance and resources to startups to scale up their operations and drive innovations.
It is a ten-week-long program that aims to give every possible support and assistance to startups for gaining industry expertise. The initiative is supported by TiE Mumbai and will benefit startups from various industries, including healthcare, finance, education, retail, agriculture, space, eCommerce, manufacturing, logistics, and many more.
The program will aid startups who plan to leverage artificial intelligence solutions to bring innovations in various departments like customer experience, crop prediction, credit rating, and many others. According to Microsoft officials, India has the world’s third-largest AI startup ecosystem, and nurturing them can add over $90 billion to the Indian economy by 2035.
President of Microsoft India, Anant Maheshwari, said, “AI is increasingly at the heart of digital transformation and Microsoft is invested deeply in helping organisations transform through AI. Microsoft AI Innovate program aims to empower startups, for meaningful innovation as they scale by helping them with businesses and industry expertise in AI.”
He further added that Microsoft would focus more on startups working in the BFSI, logistics, and manufacturing sectors for the first two months. Microsoft AI Innovate will provide technical assistance to startups and offer business opportunities for them to make artificial intelligence solutions accessible to everyone.
Selected startups will receive expert guidance sessions from industry leaders to improve their AI technologies. “Microsoft AI Innovate will create an engaging platform to empower startups with opportunities to build, scale and transform with agility,” said the director of startup ecosystem at Microsoft India, Sangeeta Bavi.
She also mentioned that Microsoft is committed to providing the best available assistance to every startup to strengthen their approach to the responsible use of artificial intelligence technologies.
Health insurance service provider Blue Shield announces partnership with Google Cloud to develop artificial intelligence-powered solutions for medical billing. The new AI solution will be able to process reimbursement claims in real-time to speed up the entire medical billing procedure.
Both companies aim to revolutionize the digital healthcare system using artificial intelligence and machine learning software on cloud platforms with this new partnership. The software will be able to accurately provide billing information in a short amount of time.
The new technology will help providers focus more on claims that can be reimbursed and save a lot of money in the lengthy administration process of medical billing. According to company officials, the new software will be used to streamline the back-end billing process between Blue Shield and other providers. The software will process electronic medical records and code them into digital records for billing.
Google Cloud director of global healthcare solutions, Aashima Gupta, said, “Our collaboration leverages the best of both companies – Blue Shield of California’s deep healthcare experience and commitment to improving the health of its communities and Google Cloud’s ability to develop and automate scalable technology.”
Currently, the mainstream method used for medical billing is a very time-consuming and tedious task to perform. Blue Shield and Google aim to simplify the entire process with their new AI software.
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Blue Shield, Lisa David, said, “The goal is to simplify the billing and payment process for providers so they can spend more of their time on patient care.”
A trend in the healthcare industry can be seen as many other companies are working towards streamlining medical billing operations to make the process seamless and less time-consuming. For instance, 3M uses natural language processing solutions to automate the medical coding process through its in-house developed 360 Encompass Professional System.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna announces that it will offer three new 4-year B.Tech courses in artificial intelligence, data science, engineering physics, and Bachelor in Science in Mathematics and Computing.
The courses will commence from the academic session of 2021, and the admissions will be accepted based on JEE-Advanced 2021. The results of JEE-Advanced 2021 were announced recently on 15th October.
The new courses will help learners teach the necessary skills that the industry requires. According to IIT Patna, the courses aim to meet the current market demand of trained professionals in the field of new-age technologies.
Rajendra Paramanik, professor in charge of public relations, said, “The institution has allotted 36 seats for admission in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, 36 for Engineering Physics, and 48 for BS in Mathematics and Computing.”
The new courses will provide learners with ample industry exposure through internships and help them get jobs in India and abroad. Moreover, IIT Patna has increased its intake capacity by 120 seats as compared to last year. Officials said that an additional 10% of seats would be reserved for international students.
IIT Patna officials said that all the new courses are meticulously planned and designed to teach students the essential concepts of the related fields. For instance, the data science course will teach how to handle voluminous data, while the mathematics and computing course will involve mathematical and analytical components.
Deep Eigen, an online education platform that focuses on offering graduate-level courses related to engineering, science, and mathematics (including, but not limited to, robotics, AI, and autonomous driving), raises $250,000 from a US-based investor at a valuation of over $5.75 million. Founded in the year 2021 by Sanjeev Sharma, Deep Eigen has been gaining traction from across the globe due to the technical superiority of the course offered by the company. Sanjeev is also a founder of an AV research startup Swaayatt Robots, which recently raised $3 million in seed funding.
“Courses in Indian colleges are significantly behind their foreign counterparts, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Online courses are typically only a mere introduction to the topics at large. This leaves a very wide gap between the knowledge one could acquire while being in the country, and what is actually required to work in the respective fields at large. Consequently, the only option one has to get the relevant knowledge is to leave the country and go abroad for MS/PhD or commercial MS/M. Eng programs,” says Sanjeev to Analytics Drift.
The lack of in-depth courses is apparent as most of the data science aspirants struggle to get a job even after completing different AI-related courses. Unlike other edtech providers like Coursera and Udacity, Deep Eigen delivers courses that go beyond the introduction of various machine learning techniques. The company has also recently released a few courses for free due to popular demand across learners from different parts of the world.
The courses of DeepEigen are generally categorized as IA, IB, and II. The category IA course is equivalent to a course being at the top 10 graduate programs in the world, with additional emphasis on industrial relevance. The category IB courses are equivalent to a one-semester course taught on the same topic at top universities during a graduation program. The category-II courses are typically broader with significant theoretical depth (comparable to graduate-level depth) and focus heavily on real-world practical applications. “Not everyone can get to graduate schools abroad; they are limited and expensive as well. In addition, the colleges’ fee is rising every year, whether in India or abroad. As a result, providing sustainable education is essential in India to keep the workforce competitive with respect to the world,” emphasizes Sanjeev.
According to Sanjeev, the funds will be used to hire instructors, teachers, and video editors to expedite the process of devising new courses. In the coming months, Deep Eigen will launch Reinforcement Learning (category IB), Mathematical Optimization (category IA), Natural Language Processing (category II), and full Machine Learning (category IA) courses.
Deep Eigen will also use a small portion of the funds in open research and development for devising new courses on Deep Learning, Reinforcements Learning, Robotics (aerial and ground), and other science and mathematics courses while also improving the platform with AI/NLP engine at the backend for a better user interface.
The Indian Army will use artificial intelligence-powered aerial sensors to scan the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This new development comes to counter the increasing aggression of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the region.
The artificial intelligence sensor technology will significantly improve the Army’s surveillance capabilities in harsh terrain. Moreover, new systems are under development that will be customized according to the unique needs of the Tibet border.
The air-based AI sensor will be integrated with other on-ground systems to track and monitor the movement of the Chinese Army in the region. Major General Zubin Minwalla, the 5 Mountain Division commander, based in Rupa, Arunachal Pradesh, said, “Without any increase in deployment, we are using technology to increase our awareness of the situation.”
“Our focus is the fusion of sensors, our ground and air based sensors are being fused and it’s a constant effort to improve capabilities,” he added.
Since last year, the Chinese Army has increased area patrolling across many regions, including Tawang, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim. This new technology will help Indian army officers to make better strategic and tactical decisions to counter the efforts of the PLA.
The AI software developed by the Indian Army can distinguish signatures collected from battlefield surveillance radar. The technology is currently being tested in the front lines by army officers. This new technology can track the movements of humans, vehicles, and animals to send real-time information to command centers for taking countermeasures quickly.
The Army is currently developing another system that would be deployed across borders to accurately track the number of violating soldiers and the mode of transport to aid officials in making quicker decisions.
Global technology company Aicadium partners with computing startup SambaNovo to develop and deploy artificial intelligence-powered end-to-end hardware and software solutions in Singapore. SambaNova’s AI solutions, including machine learning applications, natural language processing, and computer vision, will be available for companies to adopt.
With this new partnership, SambaNova plans to take a step forward in achieving its goal of making artificial intelligence solutions accessible to industries across the globe. Aicadium’s expertise and SambaNova’s best-in-class computing technology will let businesses adopt various artificial intelligence tools to help them effectively carry out their operations.
Senior Vice President of engineering at Aicadium, Dr. Rainer Burkhardt, said, “With SambaNova’s capabilities training deep neural networks from scratch combined with Aicadium’s AI platform and access to large datasets, we can really make a difference solving common issues such as high-resolution images for visual analytics problems and accelerated processing speeds.”
He further added that until now, small businesses had to rely on transfer learning to enjoy the benefits of deep and complex learning algorithms. SambaNovo’s dataflow-as-a-service solution is built on a highly flexible and scalable architecture that delivers unmatched performance, accuracy, and scale. This strategic partnership will help companies, institutions, governments, and many others quickly deploy artificial intelligence solutions to tackle their business challenges.
Head of AI strategy and solutions at Temasek and board member of Aicadium, Dr. Michel Zeller, said, “This exciting partnership with SambaNova exemplifies the collective strength and capabilities of the Temasek ecosystem, connecting firms within our portfolio and beyond to deliver better business outcomes.”
United States-based AI hardware and integrated system developing firm SambaNova was founded by Christopher Re, Kunle Olukotun, and Rodrigo Liang in the year 2017. Till date, the company has raised a total of over $1 billion in six funding rounds from investors like SoftBank Vision Fund, Intel Capital, BlackRock, Temasek Holdings, Walden International, and many others. SambaNova also develops software-defined analytics platforms that offer best-in-class performance for any machine learning training model.
Israeli artificial intelligence-powered chip manufacturing company Hailo raises $136 million in its series C funding round led by Poalim Equity and Gil Agmor. Many other investors, including Zohar Zisapel, ABB Technology Ventures, Latitude Ventures, OurCrowd, Carasso Motors, Shlomo Group, Talcar Corporation, and Comasco, also participated in the funding round.
The company plans to use the fresh funds to boost its product development process of artificial intelligence processors and expand into different markets at a global level. Hailo addressed the rising demand for AI processors and will meticulously work in this direction to offer better and improved products to its customers.
Furthermore, Hailo announced that former vice president of Intel, Mooly Eden, will join the company’s board of directors, and former CEO of Mellanox Technologies, Eyal Waldman, will plan Hailo’s advisory board.
“This tremendous support is a testament to our unparalleled edge AI product line, and we look forward to empowering even smarter and swifter devices, and thus, a more robust future powered by AI,” said co-founder and CEO of Hailo, Orr Danon.
He further added that the funds would help Hailo accelerate its plans to make artificial intelligence-powered edge solutions more accessible to various industries worldwide. The company is witnessing a surge in demand for its Hailo-8 AI processor for edge computing, and it aims to meet the market demand soon.
Tel Aviv-based processor manufacturing firm Hailo was founded by Avi Baum, Hadar Zeitlin, and Orr Danon in the year 2017. The startup specializes in developing deep learning and artificial intelligence-powered processors that offer data-center class computing capabilities for edge devices. Till date, the company has raised over $223 million over six funding rounds. Mooly Eden said,
“Hailo’s innovative and hyper-efficient processor architecture addresses the growing demand for a new kind of chip to handle these new types of workloads, challenging traditional computing solutions.” He also mentioned Halio has the capability of bringing high-end AI technologies to the market that would help it to establish a strong position in the market.
AI-based robotics company AMP Robotics partners with Agrex-Eco to launch their new artificial intelligence-powered recycling demonstration site in Poland. With this launch, AMP Robotics plans to expand its presence in Europe by deploying a demonstration site at the SIGMA SA facility located in Lublin.
The company’s new AI-powered robot accurately identifies items like papers, plastics, metals, and many more during the sorting process to increase recycling speed. Waste management and recycling companies are open to using the new setup.
Agrex-Eco will act as the official distributor of the product for customers in Poland. Agrex-Eco is a comprehensive service-providing company operating in the market for the last 30 years. It provides technical assistance and machine consultation to customers.
European general manager of AMP Robotics, Gary Ashburner, said, “We’re mutually committed to lowering the cost of recycling and improving material recovery, and look forward to opening our doors to the waste and recycling community to show how our systems, powered by the industry’s largest AI dataset, can transform their operations.”
He further added that the launch of their new demonstration site is a big step towards the company’s expansion in the European market. Last year AMP Robotics installed its first artificial intelligence-enabled robotic sorting system in partnership with REP-TEC Advanced Technologies for its customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
CEO of Agrex-Eco, Jacek Zawadzki, said, “The robot we’ve installed at the SIGMA reference site offers a great look for future customers and other interested parties at a system that’s shifting the industry’s economics.”
Colorado-based scalable robotics systems developing firm AMP Robotics was founded by James Bailey and Matanya Horowitz in the year 2015. The company specializes in developing machine learning and computer vision-based robots that automate various tasks involved in the recycling process like sorting, identification, processing of material streams, auto shredding, and many more.
AMP Robotics has raised a total of $74.5 million over six funding rounds from investors like Sequoia Capital, XN, Valour Equity Partners, Closed Loop Partners, and many others.
