>> From Seattle, Washington, it's the Cube! Covering AWS Imagine, brought to you by Amazon web services. >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Rick here with the Cube. We're in downtown Seattle at the AWS Imagine EDU Conference, it's the second year of the conference, we came up last year, I think it was like 400 people, this year's like 800 people, like all the Amazons, it grows and grows and grows. Really again, specifically a carve out from the public sector group, all about education, that's K-12, that's higher education, it's community college education, it's retraining vets, it's a huge thing. We're really excited to have the ring leader this whole event, he's just coming off the keynote, he's Andrew Ko, he's a global education director for AWS, working for Teresa. Andrew, great to see you. >> Thank you very much for having us here. >> What an event! >> Yes! >> And good job on the keynote, you guys covered a lot of different segments. This education opportunity challenge-- >> Yah. >> Is so multifaceted. >> Yes. >> Now how do you kind of organize again, what are the ways that you kind of look at this opportunity? >> Well, that's a great point, we could go on for days and for so many of the important topics, but we've really broken it down into three themes that we've carried on from last year. Really wanted to help and assist when it comes to employability. As we talk about the growth of AWS Cloud, what we're finding is there's a tremendous amount of lack of skilled talent to really fulfill those demands. So workforce is one of those particular areas. Secondly, we're seeing a tremendous growth on machine learning. The way to really predict things, whether it's student success or research. Finally, we also have a third theme that is come around innovation and transformation. Not so much always about the IT, but how are people moving along quickly on their Cloud journey? And really enabling a lot of their stakeholders, like researchers, medical centers, as well as students, to really adopt and learn technology but also embrace it in very very new innovative ways. >> Right. It's it's funny, there was a video showed in the keynote with Andy and I just want to pull the quote where you said it's not about protecting today, the infrastructure-- >> Yup. >> And we've joked many times on air about if when the time machine and you pulled somebody from 1760 and they came here-- >> Andrew: Yah. >> The only thing they'd recognize is the schoolhouse, right? >> Andrew: Right. >> But you guys are really working to change that. Everything from really, Cloud as an infrastructure efficiency play-- >> Andrew: Right. >> All the way through Cloud as an enabler for innovation, doing some really crazy things with Alexa and some of the other projects that are underway. >> Absolutely. And and we always start with our customers first. They're really the ones that have that vision and want to ensure that it's improved, and so we're excited to be a part of that journey. And as just a couple examples on how that is starting to change, is through this adaptive way of looking at information and data, and as an example as I mentioned that we're going to have an incredible panel sessions of many of our speakers, and one of which I like to call out is with the California Community College. They have over 2.1 million students at any given year, and now with the technology, they can start to try to look at patterns of success for students, patterns of challenges, and really start to make education more interactive, which is a one-way like what you were mentioning maybe it was a hundred years ago. >> Right, with the chalkboard. (chuckles) >> So it's so funny with, we talk about ML and AI-- >> Yup. >> You know, everyone's talks in the paper about, you know, the machines are going to take all of our jobs, but if you go to the back pages of the paper, I don't know if they have that anymore-- >> Yah. (chuckles) >> There's a whole lot of open recs, right? >> Yup. >> People can't hire fast enough for these jobs-- >> Right. >> So it's actually that's a much bigger problem than them taking jobs away right now, so this re-skilling is really really significant. >> Absolutely. And we always say that there's not necessarily always a jobs gap, but it's really a skills gap that are going unfulfilled. So there is a change in a lot of the talents that are required, but that's why it's so important for us representing education. That's not just about the infrastructure but how do we better prepare not just the learners of today that need some re-skilling, but also the learners for tomorrow, and provide them a pathway in a way to be interested in it, but also more importantly, getting jobs. >> Jeff: Right. >> The end of day, it's not just about a learning thing, it's about an economic thing. And so we're finding all those announcements as you heard earlier, such as Brazil. With SENAI, they're going to now announce that this curriculum is going to be available for 2.5 million education learners across the entire country, working with 740 universities so we're really excited to be behind that, and we would love to take the credit but really it's our customers, it's our leaders, it's those individuals that are really cutting edge and making those things happen. >> Jeff: Right. So again, last year was a lot about the community college and the certification of those programs, the accreditation. This year you're introducing bachelor programs, and-- >> Yes. >> Really amazing statement in the keynote about the governor of the state of Louisiana-- >> Yes. >> Basically dictating the importance of having a four-year degree based on Cloud skills. That's pretty significant. >> It's exciting. I mean, and I would say, as living in Virginia we're excited to see Northern Virginia alongside with Santa Monica Community College and Columbus Day Community College jointly together created, it wasn't us that created it, it was actually the faculty members and we got together created it, and the governor of Louisiana just took it to the next level. He really, alongside with his leadership team, of the individual leaders of the state community colleges as well as the universities said not only are we going to adopt the two-year across the state but we're going to have it articulate, allowing for students to get credit at the four-year. >> Jeff: Right. >> And why that's important, Jeff, is that we want to make sure that the pathway has on-ramps of how and where you can intersect and to get re-skilled, but also off-ramps. Some of them may get jobs right away at community college, some of them want to go to a four-year and go have more deeper learning and a different experience so-- >> Jeff: Right. >> All those options are now open. >> Right. >> And having that governor just indicates that it's important at a massive massive scale. >> Jeff: Yah. So another thing, we we have to talk about Alexa right? I forget how many millions of units you said are sold-- >> Hundred million devices last time I checked, yah. 70,000 skills. >> Lots and lots of skills, right, the skills. So it's pretty interesting in terms of really kind of helping the universities, beside just be more efficient with the Cloud infrastructure but actually appeal to their customers' students-- [Andrew] Yah. >> In a very very different way. And a pretty creative way to use Alexa and what's what's fascinating to me is I don't think we've barely scratched the surface-- >> Andrew: That's correct. >> Of voice, as a UI. >> Andrew: Yah. >> We won't. We're old, we have thumbs. (chuckles) >> But the kids coming up, right? Eventually that's going to flip-- >> Andrew: Right. >> And it's going to be more voice than keyboards so you guys took an interesting tack from the beginning, opening up the API to let people program it, versus just learning-- >> Absolutely. >> Another method. So some exciting skills, what are some of the ones that that surprise you as you go around-- >> Well-- >> To visit these customers? >> There's so many of them, it's hard to announce and discuss all of them but I would definitely say yes, this next generation, not the old fuddy-duddies like me, learn very differently now. And they're expecting to learn very differently and I think voice and natural user interface is going to be the big thing that people are going to be comfortable to talk to things and have responses back, and some of the things that we announced with our partners, well actually a few weeks ago that we mentioned in the keynote, like Kahoot!, one of the larger interactive ways of young students learning from gamification. Now they can actually speak to it, and engage in much different ways rather than just typing on a keyboard or or coding or typing things in phones, so that's exciting. Or ACT. As you just mentioned earlier, you have a young rising sophomore in a university. They probably had to, she or he had to probably study in order to get into college. Well, what if there was a voice-enabled advisor of how to take the test and the examination and that's what ACT launched. >> Jeff: Right. >> Just some small examples, and now we want to extend that excitement by encouraging other education technology companies to enroll their application by South by Southwest that we're going to announce the winners there-- >> Jeff: Right. >> Next year. So to have a lot of energy, have the educators, and just build on that incredible momentum. >> Alright Andrew, so before I let you go, I know that you got a couple thousand people here waiting to talk to you. (chuckles) The other thing is you guys have gone outside the classroom, right? >> Mm-hmm. >> Really interesting conversation about helping active-duty marines learn how to use data. Really interesting conversations about bringing the big data revolution more heavily into research and more heavily into medical and more heavily into those types of activities that happen at top-tier universities. >> Andrew: Yah. >> Really different way to again apply this revolution that's been happening on the commercial side, the enterprise side into which we play, and and helping people adapt and and evolve and really embrace big data as a tool in solving these other problems. >> Absolutely. And I think you mentioned some very important points there. Number one for us, we always think of learners as individuals that are just growing up through the educational system. But we also have learners that are lifelong learners, that have changing careers or alternating changing, so we're excited to be a part of the announcement with Northern Virginia Community College where they created a special program for Marine Corps, so they can come out and learn data intelligence, that would be applied for all, but also focused with the Marine Corps individuals there to really learn another skill set and apply it to a new occupation. >> Jeff: In their active duty. This is not for when they come out-- >> Absolutely. >> For for re-train. This is in while they're in their >> Very important. >> In their existing job. >> Absolutely. And that so that when they come out they have now applied skills in addition to the skills that they've learned being in the Marine Corps, so that they can also become really productive right after their enlistment there. >> Jeff: Right. >> And then you mentioned about research, I mean that is also an exciting thing that people so often also forget, that education also extends out there, and so like UCLA, they've created a new department blending medicine as well as engineering to tackle very important research like cancer and genomics, and so those complicated facets are now no longer is IT a separate conversation, but it's an infused way where much more high-performance computing can handle some interesting research to accelerate the outcomes. >> Right. Well Andrew, well thanks for inviting us to be here for the ride. We've we've been along the AWS ride (chuckles) >> For a while, from summits in 2012 and reinvents so we know it's going to grow, we're excited to watch it, and we'll see you next year. >> Jeff, thank you very much, and the ride is just beginning. >> Alright. He's Andrew, I'm Jeff, you're watching the Cube, we're in downtown Seattle at the AWS Imagine EDU Conference. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

(stirring music) >> Announcer: From Seattle, Washington, it's theCUBE. Covering AWS IMAGINE Nonprofit. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown Seattle, Washington, actually right on the waterfront. It has been a spectacular visit here for the last couple of days. And we're back in Seattle for AWS IMAGINE. We were here a couple weeks ago for AWS IMAGINE Education. This is a different version of the conference, really focused around government and nonprofits, and we're really excited to kick off our day with the guy coming right off the keynote who's running this, he's Dave Levy. He's the vice president for U.S. Government and Nonprofit for AWS. Dave, great to see you, and congrats on the keynote. >> Thank you, thanks for having me, too. We're really excited. >> Absolutely. So as you're talking about mission and purpose, and as I'm doing my homework for some of the topics we're going to cover today, these are big problems. I couldn't help but think of a famous quote from Jeff Hammerbacher from years ago, who said, "The greatest minds of my generation "are thinking about how to make us click ads." And I'm so happy and refreshed to be here with you and your team to be working on much bigger problems. >> Yeah, well thank you. We're very excited, we're thrilled with all the customers here, all the nonprofits, all the nongovernmental organizations, all of our partners. It's just very exciting, and there are a lot of big challenges out there, and we're happy to be a part of it. >> So it's our first time here, but you guys have been doing this show, I believe this is the fourth year. >> Its fourth year, yeah. >> Give us a little background on the nonprofit sector at AWS. How did you get involved, you know, what's your mission, and some of the numbers behind. >> Well, it's one of the most exciting part of our businesses in the worldwide public sector. And we have tens of thousands of customers in the nonprofit sector, and they are doing all sorts of wonderful things in terms of their mission. And we're trying to help them deliver on their mission with our technology. So you see everything from hosting websites, to doing back office functions in the cloud, running research and donor platforms, and so it's just a very exciting time, I think. And nonprofit missions are accelerating, and we're helping them do that. >> Yeah, it's quite a different mission than selling books, or selling services, or selling infrastructure, when you have this real focus. The impact of some of these organizations is huge. We're going to talk to someone involved in human trafficking. 25,000,000 people involved in this problem. So these are really big problems that you guys are helping out with. >> They're huge problems, and at Amazon, we really identify with missionaries. We want our partners and our customers to be able to be empowered to deliver on their mission. We feel like we're missionaries and we're builders at Amazon, so this is a really good fit for us, to work with nonprofits all over the world. >> And how did you get involved? We were here a couple weeks ago, talked to Andrew Ko. He runs EDU, he'd grown up in tech, and then one of his kids had an issue that drove him into the education. What's your mission story? >> Well, on a personal level, I'm just passionate about this space. There's so much opportunity. It's everything from solving challenges around heart disease, to research for cancer, patient care, to human trafficking. So all of those things resonate. It touches all of our lives, and I'm thrilled to be able to contribute, and I've got a fantastic team, and we've got amazing customers. >> Right. It's great. Did a little homework on you, you're a pretty good, interesting guy too. But you referenced something that I thought was really powerful, and somebody interviewing you. You talked about practice. Practice, practice, practice, as a person. And you invoked Amara's Law, which I had never heard for a person, which is we tend to overestimate what we can do in the short term, but we underestimate what we can do in the long term. And as these people are focused on these giant missions, the long term impacts can be gargantuan. >> Yeah, I think so. Like you said, we're tackling some huge problems out there. Huge, difficult problems. Migrations, diseases. And, you know, it takes a while to get these things done. And when you look back on a ten year horizon, you can really accomplish a lot. So we like to set big, bold, audacious goals at Amazon. We like to think big. And we want to encourage our customers to think big along with us. And we'll support them to go on this journey. And it may take some time, but I'm confident we can solve a lot of the big problems out there. >> But it's funny, there's a lot of stuff in social now where a lot of people don't think big enough. And you were very specific in your keynote. You had three really significant challenges. Go from big ideas to impact. Learn and be curious, and dive deep. Because like you said, these are not simple problems. These aren't just going to go away. But you really need to spend the time to get into it. And I think what's cool about Amazon, and your fanatical customer focus, to apply that type of a framework, that type of way of go to market into the nonprofit area, really gives you a unique point of view. >> I hope so. And we're doing a lot of really cool things here at the conference. We've got a Working Backwards session. One of the things about working backwards that's really interesting is the customer's at the center of that. And it all starts with the customer. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a meeting at Amazon where somebody has said, wait a second. This is what we heard these customers say, this is what we heard about their mission. And it's all about what customers want. So we're really excited that our customers here and our nonprofits here are going to be going through some of those sessions, and hopefully we can provide a little innovation engine for them by applying Amazon processes to it. >> For the people that aren't familiar, the working backwards, if I'm hearing you right, is the Amazon practice where you actually write the press release for when you're finished, and then work backwards. So you stay focused on those really core objectives. >> Yeah, that's right. It's start with your end state in mind and work backwards from there. And it starts with a press release. And certainly those are fun to write, because you want to know what you're going to be delivering and how you're going to be delivering it, and frankly how your customers and how your stakeholders will be responding. So it's a really great exercise, helps you focus on the mission, and sets up the stage for delivery in the future. >> It's funny, I think one of the greatest and easy simple examples of that is the Amazon Go store. And I've heard lots of stores, I've been it now a couple times up here, in San Francisco, and the story that I've heard, maybe you know if it's true or not, is that when they tried to implement it at first, they had a lot of more departments. And unfortunately it introduced lines not necessarily at checkout, but other places in the store. And with that single focus mission of no lines, cut back the SKUs, cut back the selection, and so when I went in it in San Francisco the other day, and it gave me my little time in the store, the Google search results? It was, I think, a minute and 19 to go in, grab a quick lunch, and then get back on my way. So really laser-focused on a specific objective. >> Yeah, and that's the point of the working backwards process. It's all about what customers want, and you can refine that and continue to refine that, and you get feedback, and you're able to answer those questions and solve those difficult problems. >> That's great. Well, Dave, thanks for inviting us here for the first time again. Congrats on the keynote, and we look forward to a bunch of really important work that your customers and your team are working on, and learning more about those stories. >> Thanks, we're thrilled. Very thrilled. >> All right. He's Dave, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We're in Seattle at the AWS IMAGINE Nonprofit. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time. (light electronic music)