Category: Microsoft news

Microsoft news, features, events, and press materials

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Australia’s Downer uses AI, intelligent cloud and IoT to optimize train maintenance

Mike Ayling has trains in his blood; both his grandfathers were train drivers and told stories about the old steam train days when bacon and egg breakfasts could be cooked on a coal shovel.

“If my grandfathers could see what we’re doing now, I think they’d be blown away in terms of the phenomenal advancement in technology,” he says.

“The improved safety aspects alone align to the real focus that we have on zero harm and making sure our employees get home safely,” says Ayling who is the General Manager of Digital Technology and Innovation at Downer which in 2011 commenced a 30-year contract with the NSW Government to manage and maintain the fleet of 78 Waratah trains.

In December 2016 the NSW Government ordered 24 Waratah Series 2 trains under its Sydney Growth Trains Project and in February 2019, announced its decision to order an additional 17 Waratah Series 2 trains and providing more passengers with improved safety and comfort due to enhanced air-conditioning systems, more CCTV cameras and improved accessibility.

Building on the success of the original Waratah trains which continue to show exceptional performance in terms of reliability and availability, Waratah Series 2 represents a new opportunity to leverage additional sensor data from the fleet.

As each Waratah train pulls in and out of a Sydney station, more than 300 Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and almost 90 cameras are silently capturing data and recording video.

Every ten minutes 30,000 signals are sent from the train to Downer. Those 30,000 signals represent the train’s digital DNA.

Ayling says; “We pretty much check everything on the train, from the bottom up, from the wheels – obviously the wheels are the most important thing in terms of the train, because that’s the thing that keeps them on the tracks. We’re very conscious of making sure the wheels are always safe, and then the bogies and traction systems, the interiors as well, making sure the CCTV cameras are always working and operational. Then at the top of the train the pantographs are making sure it gets electricity to the train.

“Essentially these are trains with brains. We’re getting 30,000 signals from each train every 10 minutes. You extrapolate that out, we now have billions of data points since the inception of the fleet.

“We’re using those sensors to tell us about the health of the train – it’s almost like having a blood pressure reading,” which, Ayling says, provides Downer with the insights it and its engineers need to ensure trains continue to operate safely and reliably.

It’s helping to automate inspections, and also the opportunity to optimise operations and introduce predictive maintenance, saving time and money. The platform puts the information directly into the hands of engineers, streamlining process and reducing the risks of miscommunication or delay.

Ayling explains that in the past although the company had the raw data, it struggled to make sense of it or get it to the people who needed it, when they needed it. That means that; “we can’t take advantage of all the raw data coming off the train to optimise our decision making.”

He knew that the right technology platform would be able to turn the raw data into actionable insights. There have been a number of attempts over the years – however it’s taken a Microsoft Azure based solution, developed by Downer, to deliver real change.

Downer entered into a strategic alliance with Microsoft in 2017 to co-operatively develop and market cloud-based solutions and services for specific industry sectors. The alliance, which sees both parties bring their technology and sector specific know-how to the table, was designed to help accelerate the rate at which transformational value could be unlocked for business.

Jason Pearce, General Manager Technology for Downer Digital Data Services, says that the rollingstock services business of Downer was one of the early adopters of its Azure based data platform, used as a backend for their TrainDNA solution. The platform has been deployed to capture and store all Downer’s IoT data, along with other important data feeds, overlaid with data analytics and visualisation tools to make sense of the information and allow Downer engineers to act on it.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Brad Smith: We’re increasing our carbon fee as we double down on sustainability

Phot of forest trees being inventoried
Image of trees with data and insights provided by Microsoft AI.

Since 2009, Microsoft has made and met a series of commitments to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. While we’ve made progress toward our goal of cutting our operational carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030, the magnitude and speed of the world’s environmental changes have made it increasingly clear that we must do more. And we are taking new steps to do just that.

Today, we are announcing that we will nearly double our internal carbon fee to $15 per metric ton on all carbon emissions. This internal Microsoft “tax” was established in 2012 to hold our business divisions financially responsible for reducing their carbon emissions. The funds from this higher fee will both maintain Microsoft’s carbon neutrality and help us take a tech-first approach that will put sustainability at the core of every part of our business and technology to work for sustainable outcomes. In practice, this means we’ll continue to keep our house in order and improve it, while increasingly addressing sustainability challenges around the globe by engaging our strongest assets as a company – our employees and our technologies.

Today, I’d like to share new steps we’re taking in four areas:

Building sustainable campuses and data centers

We will continue to build, renovate and operate our campuses in a manner that reduces our impact on the environment. At our headquarters in Redmond, Washington, we have started work to construct 17 new buildings totaling 2.5 million square feet. We will remove fossil fuels from these new buildings and run this new addition, as well as the rest of our campus, on 100 percent carbon-free electricity. We are also reducing the amount of carbon associated with the construction materials of our new buildings by at least 15 percent, with a goal of reaching 30 percent, through a new online tool. Combined with our smart building technology, Microsoft will be the first large corporate campus to reach zero-carbon and zero-waste goals.

In our data centers, we will continue to focus on R&D for efficiency and renewable energy. In 2016, we announced that we would power our data centers with more renewable energy, setting a 50 percent target by the end of 2018 and topping 60 percent early in the next decade while continuing to improve from there. We hit the first target nearly a year ahead of schedule, and today we are sharing the news that we will reach the 60 percent milestone before the end of this year. We’re therefore setting our next milestone on the path to 100 percent renewable energy, aiming to surpass the 70 percent target by 2023. We’ll also launch a new data-driven circular cloud initiative using the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor performance and streamline our reuse, resale and recycling of data center assets, including servers.

We will also add water to our long-standing carbon and energy commitments, launching a new water replenishment strategy where we will replace what our operations consume in water-stressed regions by 2030.

Accelerating research through data science

Data is a critical part of our work and a global transition to a low-carbon future. Data can help tell us about the health of our planet, including the conditions of our air, water, land and the well-being of our wildlife. But we need technology’s help to capture this vast amount of data and convert it into actionable intelligence. Despite living in the Information Age, when it comes to environmental data we are still too often flying without real insights.

We founded our AI for Earth program in 2017 with this challenge in mind. Since then, we’ve launched two new APIs that help provide the scale and flexibility to transform how people working on sustainability issues process data and generate valuable insights. More than 230 grantees are now using Azure and AI to create new models and discover new insights. But we have learned there’s still more we can do to accelerate this work.

Today, we’re committing to hosting the world’s leading environmental data science sets on Azure. These large government datasets contain satellite and aerial imagery, among other things, and require petabytes of storage. By making them available in our cloud, we will advance and accelerate the work of grantees and researchers around the world. We will also continue work to bring new APIs and applications to the AI for Earth gallery and mature projects into platform-level services as we’ve done with land cover mapping.

Helping our customers build sustainable solutions

As the world’s needs heighten, we are working more closely than ever with our customers to use digital technology and AI to address sustainability challenges. We are making this an increasing focus across every part of our company, and in the coming months we’ll share more details about our plans to develop and deploy products to facilitate our customers’ and partners’ growth with sustainability in mind.

Already we’re helping empower our customers and partners with new technology to help them drive efficiencies, transform their businesses, and create their own solutions to create a more sustainable planet. At Microsoft we call this infusion of technology tech intensity, and we’re seeing it propel sustainable growth around the globe. Let me share a few examples.

Companies like Ecolab and Ørsted are improving water conservation and efficiency of renewable energy with Microsoft Azure, IoT and AI. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has deployed a digital solution called Hermes with autonomous drones to inspect turbines and is now building on this with Azure AI to improve operations further to help make renewable energy more affordable and the future more sustainable. Bühler, one of the world’s leading grain processing providers, keeps food healthy and safe for 2 billion people every day. Their goal is to reduce 30 percent of waste and 30 percent of energy that goes into food production processing for customers by 2020. Silvia Terra, a small start-up, is focused on using AI to improve our understanding of forests and better manage these economic and environmental assets. Through its work with AI for Earth, they’ve completed a national inventory of forests, down to the tree level.

These companies’ technology breakthroughs offer a blueprint for sustainable economic growth. New research we commissioned with Pricewaterhouse Coopers UK (PwC UK) shows that greater adoption of AI across even a few sectors has the potential to boost global GDP by up to 4.4 percent, while also reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 4 percent. This is approximately 2.4 gigatons of CO2, equivalent to zeroing out the 2030 annual emissions of Australia, Canada and Japan combined.

Advocating for environmental policy change

Finally, public policy has an important role in creating enabling environments to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions. That is why we’re joining today the Climate Leadership Council (CLC). CLC is an international policy institute founded with business leaders – many of whom are our customers – as well as economists and environmental leaders to promote a national carbon pricing approach. In addition to our internal carbon tax, we supported the recent Washington state ballot measure on pricing carbon and believe it’s time for a robust national discussion on carbon pricing to lower emissions in an economically sound way.

Addressing these global environmental challenges is a big task. Meeting this raised ambition will take the work of everyone across Microsoft, as well as partnerships with our customers, policymakers and organizations around the world. This road map is far from complete, but it’s a first step in our renewed commitment to sustainability. Time is too short, resources too thin and the impact too large to wait for all the answers to act. There’s an incredible opportunity to be realized by acting, supported by data and technology, on climate change. We are starting our journey to embrace that challenge and enhance opportunities for everyone on the planet today.

Tags: , ,

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Safeguard your students, online and on campus

When students and parents are choosing a college or university, safety and security are often key considerations. And for educators, security is one of the greatest concerns they face today.

What’s behind these concerns?

Both physical threats, including assaults and property crimes, and online cyber threats are on the rise. Institutions have become a major target for phishing attacks, ransomware, and data theft – with higher education institutions accounting for 17% of all data breaches where personal information is stolen. Only the medical sector is victimized at a higher rate1. Safeguarding physical and digital security on campus is more critical and complex than ever before.

Higher education institutions need powerful, comprehensive security solutions to reduce risk by more proactively addressing cyber security and physical safety threats.

Why is an end-to-end approach important?

In a world of internet-connected smart devices (IoT), cyber and physical security are increasingly connected. Access systems, security cameras, and even telephone systems are often controlled through an organization’s network, leaving the network vulnerable to attack if not protected. Consider the case of the former computer science student who launched a botnet attack on a large university computer network: implanting malware on security cameras and other IoT devices, this hacker caused one of worst outages in the history of the internet by launching denial of service attacks on service providers and websites, and demanding Bitcoin payment for their release.

Ensuring that the right people have the right access to the right physical spaces and digital information is also important. If a student’s identity is logged in from one location and then, three minutes later, the same student ID card is trying to access a resident hall on the main campus hours away, an increased layer of security is required.

A campus imperative

As the lines of separation between the digital and physical worlds continue to blur, it’s imperative that universities have a planned approach to security that considers how to both protect information online and ensure a safe campus environment.

Microsoft can help with smart cloud technology that integrates physical and cyber security. Microsoft’s Smart and Secure Campus solutions combine security and threat protection with sophisticated artificial intelligence that works seamlessly in the background — sharing intelligence and working smarter to automatically address and remediate security threats online.

To learn more, download the Smart and Secure Campus e-book.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Apache Hadoop 3.0 on Azure HDInsight now available

imageToday we’re announcing the general availability of Apache Hadoop 3.0 on Azure HDInsight. Microsoft Azure is the first cloud provider to offer customers the benefit of the latest innovations in the most popular open source analytics projects, with unmatched scalability, flexibility, and security. With the general availability of Apache Hadoop 3.0 on Azure HDInsight, we are building upon existing capabilities with a number of key enhancements that further improve performance and security, and deepen support for the rich ecosystem of big data analytics applications.

Bringing Apache Hadoop 3.0 and supercharged performance to the cloud

Apache Hadoop 3.0 represents over 5 years of major upgrades contributed by the open source community across key Apache frameworks such as Hive, Spark, and HBase. New features in Hadoop 3.0 provide significant improvements to performance, scalability, and availability, reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating time-to-value.

  • Apache Hive 3.0 – With ACID transactions on by default and several performance improvements, this latest version of Hive enables developers to build “traditional database” applications on massive data lakes. This is particularly important for enterprises who need to build GDPR/privacy compliant big data applications.
  • Hive Warehouse Connector for Apache Spark – With the Hive Warehouse Connector, the Spark and Hive worlds are coming closer together. The new connector moves the integration from the metastore layer to the query engine layer. This enables higher, more reliable performance with predicate pushdown and other functionality.
  • Apache HBase 2.0 and Apache Phoenix 5.0 – Apache HBase 2.0 and Apache Phoenix 5.0 introduce a number of performance, stability, and integration improvements. With HBase 2.0, periodic reorganization of the data in the memstore with in-memory compactions improves performance as data is not flushed or read too often from remote cloud storage. Phoenix 5.0 brings more visibility into queries with query log by introducing a new system table that captures information about queries that are being run against the cluster.
  • Spark IO Cache – IO Cache is a data caching service for Azure HDInsight that improves the performance of Apache Spark jobs. IO Cache also works with Apache TEZ and Apache Hive workloads, which can be run on Apache Spark clusters.

Enhanced enterprise grade security

Enterprise grade security and compliance is a critical requirement for all customers building big data applications that store or process sensitive data in the cloud.

  • Enterprise Security Package (ESP) support for Apache HBase – With the general availability of ESP support for HBase, customers can ensure that users authenticate to their HDInsight HBase clusters using their corporate domain credentials and are subject to rich, fine-grained access policies (authored and managed in Apache Ranger).
  • Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) support for Apache Kafka – Customers can now bring their own encryption keys into the Azure Key Vault and use them to encrypt the Azure Managed Disks storing their Apache Kafka messages. This gives them a high degree of control over the security of their data.

Rich developer tooling

Azure HDInsight offers rich development experiences with various integrated development environment (IDE) extensions, notebooks, and SDKs.

  • SDKs general availability – HDInsight SDKs for .NET, Python, and Java enable developers to easily manage clusters using the language of their choice.
  • VSCode – HDInsight VSCode extension enables developers to submit Hive batch jobs, interactive Hive queries, and PySpark scripts to HDInsight 4.0 clusters.
  • IntelliJ – Azure Toolkit for IntelliJ enables Scala and Java developers to program Spark, Scala, and Java projects with built-in templates. Developers can easily perform local run, local debug, open interactive sessions, and submit Scala/Java projects to HDInsight 4.0 Spark clusters directly from the IntelliJ integrated development environment.

Broad application ecosystem

Azure HDInsight supports a vibrant application ecosystem with a variety of popular big data applications available on Azure Marketplace, covering scenarios from interactive analytics to application migration. We are excited to support applications such as:

  • Starburst (Presto) – Presto is an open source, fast, and scalable distributed SQL query engine that allows you to analyze data anywhere within your organization. Architected for the separation of storage and compute, Presto can easily query data in Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage, SQL and NoSQL databases, and other data sources. Learn more and explore Starburst Presto on Azure Marketplace.
  • Kyligence – Kyligence is an enterprise online analytic processing (OLAP) engine for big data, powered by Apache Kylin. Kyligence enables self-service, interactive business analytics on Azure, achieving sub-second query latencies on trillions of records and seamlessly integrating existing Hadoop and BI systems. Learn more and explore Kyligence on Azure Marketplace.
  • WANDisco – WANDisco Fusion de-risks migration to the cloud by ensuring disruption-free data migrations, easy and seamless extensions of Spark and Hadoop deployments, and short or long term hybrid data operations. Learn more and explore WANDisco on Azure Marketplace.
  • Unravel Data – Unravel provides a unified view across your entire data stack, providing actionable recommendations and automation for tuning, troubleshooting, and improving performance. The Unravel Data app uses Azure Resource Manager, allowing customers to connect Unravel to a new or existing HDInsight cluster with one click. Learn more and explore Unravel on Azure Marketplace.
  • Waterline Data – With Waterline Data Catalog and HDInsight, customers can easily discover, organize, and govern their data, all at the global scale of Azure. Learn more and explore Waterline on Azure Marketplace.

Get started now

We look forward to seeing what innovations you will bring to your users and customers with Azure HDInsight. Read the developer guide and follow the quick start guide to learn more about implementing open source analytics pipelines on Azure HDInsight. Stay up-to-date on the latest Azure HDInsight news and exciting features coming in the near future by following us on Twitter (#AzureHDInsight). For questions and feedback, please reach out to AskHDInsight@microsoft.com.

About Azure HDInsight

Azure HDInsight is an enterprise-ready service for open source analytics that enables customers to easily run popular Apache open source frameworks including Apache Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, and others. The service is available in 30 public regions and Azure Government Clouds in the US and Germany. Azure HDInsight powers mission critical applications for a wide range of sectors and use cases including ETL, streaming, and interactive querying.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Teaching happiness around the world: Join #MSFTEduChat TweetMeet on April 16

Announcing the April 16 TweetMeet on ‘Teaching Happiness and Social-Emotional Learning’

Every year, March 20 marks the International Day of Happiness, a campaign launched by the United Nations that is now celebrated worldwide. This program aligns with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals that aim to end poverty, reduce inequality and protect our planet.

In support for the UN campaign and to raise awareness for the emotional well-being of students as well as teachers, we invite you to participate in the next #MSFTEduChat TweetMeet of April 16.

In this edition of our monthly global and multilingual Twitter conversations, we’ll discuss the role that happiness and social-emotional learning (SEL) play in classrooms around the world.

Keep reading for detailed information about this TweetMeet.

Language tracks and SuperSway

We offer seven simultaneous language tracks this month: English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish and Serbian. The new SuperSway offers a TweetMeet Invitation in each of these languages:

For each language track, we have one or more hosts to post the translated questions and respond to educators. As always, we’re super grateful to all current and former hosts who are collaborating closely to provide this service.

The #TweetMeetXX hashtags for non-English languages are to be used together with #MSFTEduChat so that everyone can find the conversations back in their own language. For example: Polish-speaking people should use both #TweetMeetPL #MSFTEduChat. English-speaking educators may use #MSFTEduChat on its own.

TweetMeet Fan? Show it off on your Twitter profile!

Every month more and more people discover the unique flow and characteristics of the TweetMeet events and become excited to participate.

Show your passion for the TweetMeets right from your own Twitter page by uploading this month’s #MSFTEduChat Twitter Header Photo to the top of your own Twitter profile.

In the same file folder, the Twitter Header Photo is available in many other languages and time zones.

Looking back on the March TweetMeet on ‘MakeWhatsNext & STEM’

The March #MSFTEduChat TweetMeet inspired educators around the world to share ideas, insights and resources. We captured highlights from this Twitter conversation in this @MicrosoftEDU Twitter Moment.

Why join the #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets?

TweetMeets are monthly recurring Twitter conversations about themes relevant to educators, facilitated by Microsoft Education. The purpose of these events is to help professionals in education to learn from each other and inspire their students while they are preparing for their future. The TweetMeets also nurture personal learning networks among educators from across the globe.

We’re grateful to have a support group made up exclusively of former TweetMeet hosts, who volunteer to translate communication and check the quality of our questions and promotional materials. They also help identify the best candidates for future events, provide relevant resources, promote the events among their networks and, in general, cheer everybody on.

When and how can I join?

Join us Tuesday, April 16 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT on Twitter using the hashtags #MSFTEduChat, #TeachingHappiness, #SEL and #MicrosoftEDU (which you can always use to stay in touch with us). Be sure to double-check your own local event time, as this may be different this month. You can find the event time for 215 countries with this time zone announcer.

Too busy to join at event time? No problem!

From our monthly surveys we know that you may be in class at event time, busy doing other things or may even be asleep–well, no problem! All educators are welcome to join any time after the event. Simply look at the questions below and respond to these at a day and time that suit you best.

You can also schedule your tweets in advance. In that case, be sure to include the entire question in your tweet and mention the hashtag #MSFTEduChat so that everyone knows to which question in which conversation you are responding.

The exact question timings are in this helpful graphic:

Resources to help prepare for the TweetMeet

Microsoft Education has just announced the availability of the full report: Emotion and Cognition in the Age of AI. The new report is based on global research by The Economist Intelligence Unit supported by Microsoft.

Read the blog post Happy International Day of Happiness: New Research Suggests Happy Students Achieve More.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCDwyrlzqiQ?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360]

Discussion Questions

Fasten your seatbelts. Because of the significance of this month’s topic, we will start and end the TweetMeet with a bonus question. Watch the animated GIF with all the questions:

Hosts

Meet the 15 hosts for this month’s TweetMeet! They are all passionate about #TeachingHappiness and #SEL and very eager to engage with you.

Check out all the hosts, see what they are tweeting about and consider following them: https://twitter.com/TweetMeet/lists/MSFTEduChat-2019-04/members

List of host names and their profiles

  • Aoife Cantwell @acantwelled (Spanish and English teacher, focused on student well-being, personal development and providing a happy atmosphere in life – Dublin, Ireland)
  • Brian Romero Smith @BrianRSmithSr (Passionate about meeting each and every student where they are in order to make learning addictive from their inside out – Grand Prairie TX, USA)
  • Gizelle Simpson @Gizelle_Simpson (Passionate about inspiring students to reach their full potential and also equipping them to be future-ready – Cape Town, South Africa)
  • Hayfa Majdoub @haymajd (English language teacher, passionate about ICT, eTwinning Coordinator – Ben Arous, Tunisia)
  • Javier Ramos Sancha @javiramossancha (Primary English teacher at Colegio San Gregorio (Aguilar de Campoo) MIE Expert, MIE Fellow, ClassDojo Ambassador and eTwinning Ambassador – Burgos, Spain)
  • Jessica Pilsner @jess_pilsner (Middle school teacher with a passion for human‑centered design and emerging technologies – Renton, WA USA
  • Karolina Żelazowska @KsieznaKarolina (Educator, teacher, trainer, tutor, mentor and PhD-student (digital humanities). Member of SuperBelfrzyRP, Coding Masters and Digital Dialog teams – Warsaw, Poland)
  • Khalid Bayla @Bayla_Khalid (Primary school teacher, MIE Expert, MIE Master Trainer, Skype Master Teacher, E2 Singapore attendee, changemaker, speaker, coder, designer, author, founder of “21st century child project” and “ICT and Innovation club” – Settat , Morocco)
  • Katie Felix @MrsKFelix (Kindergarten teacher who brings tech, play, and learning together – Tacoma WA, USA)
  • Mirjana Kokerić @MirjanaKokeric (Math teacher and Life coach passionate about personal development and happiness in education – Smederevo, Serbia)
  • Robert Dunlop @dunlop3339 (Educator and technology consultant with a passion for happiness in education – Niagara Falls, Canada)
  • Rohit Kumar @rohit2093 (Co-founder Khoj Community School, an SEL-integrated School by Apni Shala, and Community and Social Responsibility Coordinator at American School of Bombay – Mumbai, India)
  • Surani Maithripala @sue_maithri (Lifelong learner, educator and edtech guru passionate about preparing future-ready students – Colombo, Sri Lanka)
  • Toney Jackson @HeRhymesWithMe (Classroom superhero with poetry powers. 4th‑grade teacher, speaker & passionate learner putting fun into the fundamentals of any subject – Hackensack NJ, USA)
  • Tullia Urschitz @utullia (STEM teacher and trainer, Scientix Ambassador, using ICT, robotics and tinkering to promote learning and social & emotional skills – Verona, Italy)

Flipgrid

Our hosts are thrilled for the upcoming TweetMeet. Each of them wants to invite you to the event in their own way.

What are #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8IK9WWESFo?feature=oembed]

Every month Microsoft Education organizes social events on Twitter targeted at educators globally. The hashtag we use is #MSFTEduChat. A team of topic specialists and international MIE Expert teachers prepare and host these TweetMeets together. Our team of educator hosts first crafts several questions around a certain topic. Then, before the event, they share these questions on social media. Combined with a range of resources, a blog post and background information about the events, this allows all participants to prepare themselves to the full. Afterwards we make an archive available of the most notable tweets and resources shared during the event.

TweetChat expert Madalyn Sklar recently published this helpful introductory guide:
Your Complete Guide to Twitter Chats: Why You Should Join & How to Make the Most of It

Please connect with TweetMeet organizer Marjolein Hoekstra @OneNoteC on Twitter if you have any questions about TweetMeets or helping out as a host.

Next month’s event: Inclusive Classrooms and Accessibility 

The theme of next month’s Tweetmeet on May 21st will be Inclusive Classrooms and Accessibility. We’re looking forward to this event and hope you’ll spread the word!

How to participate in a TweetMeet

We recommend setting up a Twitter dashboard TweetDeck and add a column for the hashtag #MSFTEduChat. If you are new to TweetDeck, then check out this brief TweetDeck tutorial by Marjolein Hoekstra.

When a tweet appears that you want to respond to, press the retweet button and type your comments.

Don’t forget to add the hashtags #TeachingHappiness, #SEL, #MSFTEduChat and #MicrosoftEDU.

Additional tips are offered in this animated GIF that you can share with newcomers:

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Microsoft expands clean energy, connectivity investments in Washington state with Chelan Public Utility District

New agreements enable a zero-carbon headquarters, as Microsoft’s Puget Sound operations will be powered entirely by local hydro

REDMOND and WENATCHEE, Wash. – April 12, 2019 – Microsoft Corp. today announced new agreements to boost clean energy and connectivity in Washington state. The two agreements with Chelan County Public Utility District (PUD) will see Microsoft receive carbon-free electricity to power its Puget Sound campuses and partner with the PUD on broadband connectivity in Chelan County.

Chelan County Public Utility District logo“This agreement provides much more than renewable energy for Microsoft — it’s an investment in new opportunities for communities in central Washington and the competitiveness of Washington state,” said Shelley McKinley, general manager, Technology and Corporate Responsibility, Microsoft. “We’re proud to be powering our Puget Sound operations in a way that reduces carbon emissions, supports the clean energy sector and supports efforts to expand connectivity. We look forward to working with Chelan PUD to achieve these goals.”

Through the five-year power supply agreement, Microsoft will receive hydropower from Chelan PUD that meets the high bar for carbon-free and clean energy established in the direct access contract struck last year. It will also keep carbon-free power generated in Washington state within the state, delivering economic and environmental benefits for Chelan County, the greater Seattle area and the state.

The two organizations also signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on efforts to expand broadband service in the most challenging, most rural parts of Chelan County. Connectivity is a shared goal of the two organizations, as demonstrated by the PUD’s success in currently providing broadband access to about three-quarters of the county, and Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, which aims to bring broadband to three million people in rural America by 2022.

The power supply agreement directly enables this work, as revenues from the power sales will be used to fund hydropower reinvestment, broadband expansion and other benefits for Chelan County. Microsoft will bring technical assistance to this effort, supporting Chelan PUD’s desire to expand technology access to remote parts of Chelan County.

“Today, innovative technology is pairing up with renewable hydropower to support our shared goals of a healthy environment and a strong, evolving economy,” said General Manager Steve Wright, Chelan PUD. “The new partnership with Microsoft provides immediate economic value for Chelan County as well as long-term benefits in broadband connectivity. This deal displays hydropower’s capability to support achieving 100% clean energy goals, while providing funding and access to expertise to help meet our objective of providing broadband access to 85% of county residents and hopefully more.”

Microsoft logo“This is an exciting day for the state of Washington and especially for residents of Chelan County,” said Governor Jay Inslee. “This agreement between Microsoft and Chelan PUD is a perfect example of how Washington’s renewable, reliable hydropower resources will continue to play a central role in driving innovation, supporting rural economic development and transitioning our economy to 100% clean energy.”

Chelan County PUD has an all-renewable, carbon-free generation portfolio composed of more than 99% hydropower.

In addition, Microsoft is in the final stages of negotiating an additional renewable energy purchase agreement that would see the company contract for output of a new wind or solar resource in the state, expected to be sited and operational within the next five years.

No additional infrastructure is required in Chelan’s service area to be able to send power from Chelan PUD to Microsoft. Chelan PUD will work with Powerex Corp., of Vancouver, B.C., which will provide real-time forecasting scheduling and transmission services to assist the PUD in transmitting its carbon-free power from Chelan County to Microsoft’s headquarters.

#  #  #

About Chelan PUD

Chelan Public Utility District was created by a vote of the people in 1936 and delivered its first power in 1947. The PUD is governed by a locally elected five-member Board of Commissioners. The general manager uses the policies and guiding principles set by the commission to generate and deliver electricity from our three dams to utilities that serve customers across the Pacific Northwest as well as to more than 51,000 retail customers in the county. The PUD also provides water, sewer and wholesale telecommunications services.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

Neil Neroutsos, Chelan County PUD, (509) 661-8291, neil.neroutsos@chelanpud.org

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Check out the PBS documentary on ‘CyberWork and the American Dream’

Every day the world is becoming more digital and every company is becoming a technology company. Cloud computing and AI combined with new productivity, communication and intelligent tools and services enable us to do more, do it more quickly and in ways that were simply unimaginable a generation ago. But participating in the digital economy means that people need digital skills and companies need skilled workers.

There will be 1.4 million computer science-related jobs by 2020, yet U.S. college graduates are expected to fill less than a third of those jobs. Millions of Americans whose skills were valuable just a few years ago, find themselves underemployed — or worse, out of work altogether. PBS’ new documentary, “CyberWork and the American Dream,” examines this challenge and delves into the history of solving problems posed by technological disruption.

Ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the digital economy means that we need to change the way people are educated, trained and hired. This isn’t a challenge any one company can address alone. It will take a focused public-private approach to ensure everyone can participate in the digital economy. Microsoft is working hard on this issue and will share more about our approach in the coming months.

If America’s leaders come together and take on the challenge of preparing all Americans for the economic opportunities of tomorrow, we can unlock the potential of our nation’s best asset: our skilled and talented workforce.

Tags:

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Microsoft Store Spring Sale: Great deals on games, consoles and Xbox Game Pass

The Microsoft Store Spring Sale kicks off today, so now is the perfect opportunity to score great deals on all things Xbox including the best deal of the year on Xbox Game Pass. Take advantage of Spring deals on Xbox and PC games, Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold memberships, Xbox consoles, gaming PCs, gaming accessories, movies, apps and more.  But you will have to hurry, Spring Sale ends April 22.

Save on up to 65% select Xbox games

This Spring there are more than 500 deals on Xbox digital games and add-ons including popular titles like The Division 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, FIFA 19, NBA 2K19, and more. There also are first-time discounts on Metro Exodus, Jump Force, and Crackdown 3 as well as even deeper discounts on best-selling titles like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition. Additionally, there’s a wide selection of discounted family content games, game bundles, and add-on content, plus 95 Xbox One games priced at $10 or less.

Don’t forget that Xbox Live Gold members save up to an additional 10% more on Xbox digital games.  Not Gold?  During Spring Sale, join Xbox Live Gold and get your first month for $1 plus  1,000 coins of Apex Legends virtual currency.

Get the best deal of the year on Xbox Game Pass – 3 months for $1

Not an Xbox Game Pass member?  Had Xbox Game Pass and took a break?  Now is the time to score the best deal of the year on Xbox Game Pass.  Get 3 months for just $1 and immediately enjoy unlimited access to over 100 games including new first party releases.

Don’t forget that if you haven’t gone Gold yet, Spring Sale is the perfect time to join. Get your first month of Xbox Live Gold membership for $1 plus you also get 1,000 coins of Apex Legends virtual currency on us.*  Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold promotional $1 offers not valid for existing members. Sign in to save.

Save on Xbox Consoles and accessories 

Deals for PC Gamers

April 12-22: Save up to 50% on popular PC Games like the Forza Motorsport 7 & Forza Horizon 3 bundle, Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, Crackdown 3, and more

  • April 12-22: Save $300 ($400 CA) on the Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card
  • April 12-22: Save $200 US ($250 CA) on the Dell Inspiron 5680 Gaming Desktop with Intel Core-i5, 8GB memory, 1TB HDD, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (monitor not included)
  • April 12-22: Save $200 US ($250 CA) on the Samsung HMD Odyssey+ Windows Mixed Reality Headset with Motion Controllers

Save big on popular Movies & TV Shows and Apps

Spring Sale deals are available on console, online at Microsoft Store and Xbox.com, as well as Microsoft Store retail locations, so take advantage of the great deals before they end on April 22, 2019 (or as otherwise noted above).  Availability and pricing varies by location. May not be combinable with other offers. Other limitations may apply. Not valid on prior orders or purchases. See webpage for each offer’s specific details.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Interactive art: ‘Public Radio’ installation lets you pick the music

Public Radio on display at District Hall
Public Radio on display at District Hall (photo credit: New American Public Art)

Standing 10 feet tall, elegantly sloped along its front face with the soft light of rainbow LEDs glowing behind half inch of frosted acrylic, “Public Radio” is a unique art installation you’ll find at District Hall’s outdoor plaza in the Seaport, Boston’s home for innovation. Turn the metal-rimmed dials to tune to a different station as the corresponding LEDs light up on this giant radio, powered by a tiny but mighty BBC micro:bit computer, inviting the public to play with and listen to the latest broadcasts and music. Built by New American Public Art in the Microsoft Garage at the New England Research and Development Center, Public Radio is an interactive art installation with microprocessor parts and a futuristic look that encourages a spirit of community, working and grooving together.

A sense of community, inspiring movement and spontaneous interaction

Somerville-based New American Public Art (NAPA) is a multi-disciplinary art studio that builds interactive projects and installations. NAPA answered the 2016 Public Space Invitational Digital Challenge put forth by Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in collaboration with Microsoft. After 6 months of fabricating and building, the larger-than-life radio was ready for show. It has been living in The Garage at NERD as a centerpiece that demonstrates how technology and art can converge.

“When you scale up a common object and place it in the public, you often get uncommon and surprising results. How will the public decide among themselves what to listen to?” says Dan Sternof Beyer, Creative Director and Co-Founder of NAPA.

From NAPA’s original project proposal, the idea is “Music inspires movement, creates a sense of place, and provides an opportunity for spontaneous interaction with other people.” NAPA designed the project in collaboration with creative engineer Andrew Ringler. Chris Templeman, Microsoft Garage program manager, had connections with the local studio prior to joining Microsoft. Templeman introduced NAPA to the bevy of hardware and fabrication tools in the Garage maker lab. “The Garage at NERD has embraced local artists since we opened our doors last year. We’re constantly inspired by art and how that creativity and imagination can help make better products and spark new ideas.”

Public Radio in The Garage at NERD

Public Radio in The Garage at NERD (photo credit: New American Public Art)

“I think people will be excited to experience the Public Radio because it’s an innovative way to activate a public space using a combination of interactive art and technology,” says Aimee Sprung, Director of Civic Engagement at Boston’s Microsoft office. “The build-out at Microsoft Garage has been both an educational and exciting experience and we’re proud to have sponsored this program as part of our commitment to driving civic engagement in Boston.”

More than art – bringing technology to life

Public Radio was freshly installed outside District Hall on April 5th and will be on display for the public to interact with through September. For the past year, however, it has stood as a compelling example of innovative tech-meets-art in The Garage at NERD, showcased in interactions with the community and local schools. “We often use micro:bit in workshops where we invite local STEM students,” explains Templeman. “When we have students come in and learn how to program on the micro:bit, we use the Public Radio to illustrate what you can do with it to run such large and interactive projects. It brings the tech to life in a creative and tangible way.”

Employees from Microsoft’s Education Windows and Devices team have also been engaging public schools and collaborating with The Garage to bring students in to engineer escape rooms. “We are teaching kids engineering by building escape rooms using the micro:bit.” Tisha Nguyen, a Solutions Professional on the Education team explains. “This hands-on experience outside the traditional classroom setting is extremely valuable as we continue to prepare the next generation of Data Scientists, Engineers, and Statisticians.” The effort was made possible with the help of engineers from Office who designed the escape room experiences, Jean-Yves Ntamwemezi, Arthur Berman, and Eric Frackleton.

Public Radio outside of District Hall

Public Radio outside of District Hall (photo credit: New American Public Art)

With Public Radio now leaving The Garage space and headed to its new home, there are still plenty of creative sources for inspiration left. The recent collaboration of MIT, The Met, and Microsoft has spurred new relationships with other art institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. “We are thrilled to work with local artists and museums to figure out different ways tech can help push the boundaries of creativity,” says Linda Thackeray, Director of The Garage.

The details and specifications of the Public Radio are all available open-source on Github, including how to get the micro:bit connected with the radio boards, sensors, and LEDs. Learn more about the Public Radio from the official press release.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Tech to take you to the top – Microsoft courses will tackle digital skills gap one student at a time

Students will be able to study for qualifications in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data science alongside their chosen subject as part of a new higher education initiative from Microsoft.

The technology company has teamed up with the University of London, Staffordshire University and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), as well as two institutions in the US, to offer courses that will help young people learn key digital skills that they can use throughout their career.

The move is designed to tackle the digital skills gap across the UK, which risks holding back businesses in all sectors.

The Microsoft technical skills programme contains nine self-study courses, which have been created and are taught online by experts – Data Analysis, Data Science, Big Data, Cybersecurity, DevOps, IT Support, Internet of Things, AI and Entry Level Software Development. Each course teaches students about some of the most popular programs in use today, including Microsoft Excel, Power BI, Python, SQL Server, JavaScript, CSS and Azure.

The three UK institutions are integrating the courses in different ways to ensure they have the most impact on their students. The University of London is integrating an entire course into its Master’s in Data Science, so that students can learn the digital skills that employers need. In the data science course, for example, they will “learn how to apply technology to real-world problems and gain an understanding of emerging technologies, statistical analysis and computational techniques” as well as “transferable skills that will help advance your career”. Students will get support from tutors or online tutor groups.



Mary Stiasny, Pro-Vice Chancellor at University of London, said: “Our mission at the University of London is to develop internationally aware, innovative and employable graduates. Our online MSc Data Science programme encourages them to explore ideas, challenge boundaries and investigate fresh ways of thinking. For this reason, we are particularly excited about our collaboration with Microsoft for its potential to help our students meet and exceed the changing needs of the 21st century workplace.”

Staffordshire University is encouraging students to study individual modules that complement their degrees. Someone studying fashion design, for example, could take a web development course, so they can learn to build a website to sell their clothes.

Helen Holt, Head of Partnering and Digital Skills at Staffordshire University, said: “It’s important that we’re offering all our students the chance to learn digital skills and help them stand out in the workplace. The Microsoft Professional Programme will help them do that.

“Our lecturers and students like that there is a range of content in these courses and they can pick and choose what works for them. Our students are telling us they want digital skills. They might be good with tablets and phones but they might not know how to use Excel, and they want to learn how.

<img data-attachment-id="74446" data-permalink="https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2019/01/30/staffordshire-university-to-launch-first-digital-assistant-for-students/microsoft-by-rob-kalmbach-9/" data-orig-file="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/tech-to-take-you-to-the-top-microsoft-courses-will-tackle-digital-skills-gap-one-student-at-a-time.jpg" data-orig-size="7000,4669" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Rob Kalmbach","camera":"","caption":"by Rob Kalmbach Photography","created_timestamp":"1513862980","copyright":"Rob Kalmbach","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"Microsoft by Rob Kalmbach","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Microsoft by Rob Kalmbach" data-image-description="

Female student sitting on stairs at university campus

” data-medium-file=”https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/68/2019/01/OFC18_studyStairs_Education_005-300×200.jpg” data-large-file=”https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/68/2019/01/OFC18_studyStairs_Education_005-1600×1067.jpg” class=”size-full wp-image-74446″ src=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/tech-to-take-you-to-the-top-microsoft-courses-will-tackle-digital-skills-gap-one-student-at-a-time.jpg” alt=”Female student sitting on stairs at university campus” width=”7000″ height=”4669″ srcset=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/tech-to-take-you-to-the-top-microsoft-courses-will-tackle-digital-skills-gap-one-student-at-a-time.jpg 7000w, https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/68/2019/01/OFC18_studyStairs_Education_005-300×200.jpg 300w, https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/68/2019/01/OFC18_studyStairs_Education_005-768×512.jpg 768w, https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/68/2019/01/OFC18_studyStairs_Education_005-1600×1067.jpg 1600w, https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/68/2019/01/OFC18_studyStairs_Education_005-960×640.jpg 960w” sizes=”(max-width: 7000px) 100vw, 7000px”>

The courses will help young people learn digital skills that they can use throughout their career

“We are based in Stoke-on-Trent and some of our students are the first generation of their families to go to university. Alongside specialist knowledge gained through their courses, they are learning digital skills that are recognised globally.”

LSE is encouraging students to study the courses, but it will be optional for them. It has been piloting Python and Excel courses over the past few months, with dozens of students gaining qualifications and giving positive feedback to teachers.

Jeni Brown, Head of Digital Skills Lab at the LSE, said: “The courses align really well with what we are doing at LSE, as they focus on the range of skills people will need in these roles rather than just the technologies. Students and staff have told us they want more opportunities to develop their skills in areas such as AI, big data and data science, to complement and enhance their academic programmes.

“The content is high quality and we can use it in a number of ways. Our students can study the courses independently online but we can also embed modules into what we already deliver. More than 60% of our students have come to LSE from outside the UK, and they will take those skills around the world. We want to create social science graduates who can really engage with a world that is becoming more immersed in technology and who understand how it impacts on their particular field.”



According to US Department of Labor, 65% of today’s students will end up working in jobs that don’t exist yet. Separate research has found that 808 million people need to learn new skills for their jobs by 2020, 40% of employers said skill shortages have a negative impact on their business, and 50 million people are needed to fill open, technical jobs by 2030.

Karen Kocher, General Manager of 21st Century Jobs, Skills and Employability at Microsoft, said: “The incredible transformation we’re witnessing in the 21st century workplace calls out for key organizations – governments, higher education institutions, employers, the non-profit sector – to step up and work together to teach, train and prepare workers for the jobs of tomorrow. This is a crucial part of our purpose at Microsoft and we are proud to join forces with seminal, global learning institutions to help make good on that purpose.”

The Microsoft technical skills programme, delivered by Fast Lane, will also be run at Bellevue College, near Seattle, and the online-based Purdue University Global, with Microsoft hoping to agree more collaborations in the future.

Tags: , , , , ,