Angel Cortez was ready for a change. Cortez, 43, is a Mexican immigrant who has worked in agriculture, landscaping and restaurants since he arrived in California more than 25 years ago. But he said a workplace injury nearly a decade ago has made physical labor -- jobs requiring him to stand or walk for long periods -- exceedingly painful. He has been looking to transition into jobs he could do primarily while seated. But his options felt limited: He has a high school education from Mexico, but doesn't speak English fluently and wasn't comfortable using a computer.

A business school takes a multidisciplinary approach to teaching students about the critical role of ethics in the deployment of artificial intelligence. San Francisco has a long history of discovery--from the Gold Rush to the tech revolution. The city also has a history of embracing people-centered social justice. It makes sense, then, that faculty at San Francisco State University (SFSU) would want to combine the two as we explore the implications of one of the next frontiers of discovery: artificial intelligence. I have found that business schools largely discuss AI within other topic areas such as product development or marketing.

While normal education suffered a standstill in 2020, there were a lot of online courses and programs that were initiated by some of the most prestigious institutions as well as big tech giants so that the process of learning and skill development doesn't suffer. As the trend has been for a few years now, some of the most interesting initiatives were seen in the field of data science. In this article, we have listed some of the prominent data science education programs and initiatives in 2020. Microsoft, in collaboration with Netflix, has launched three new learning modules on beginners concepts in data science, along with machine learning and artificial intelligence. The design of these courses is inspired by the Netflix original film -- 'Over The Moon,' where a young girl Fei Fei, who builds a rocket to the moon, embarks on a mission to prove the existence of Moon Goddess.

On Sept. 9, during the DOD's semi-annual Artificial Intelligence Symposium and Exposition, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper affirmed that the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Defense Acquisition University will collaboratively develop an intensive six-week pilot course delivered to more than 80 defense acquisition professionals of all ranks and grades. "These trainees will learn how to apply AI and data science skills to our operations," Esper said in his remarks. "With the support of Congress, the Department plans to request additional funding for the services to grow this effort over time and deliver an AI-ready workforce to the American people." Just as the university's highly-regarded Harnessing Artificial Intelligence video course paved the way for its support of the pilot course, NPS is well positioned to support Esper's declaration for further workforce development through its existing Data Science Certificate, and an upcoming similar certificate program in Artificial Intelligence. In the ongoing effort to expand the Navy's knowledge and expertise in the fields of data science and artificial intelligence, NPS faculty have developed courses that enable students to quickly gain insights in these critical disciplines.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has partnered with Coursera, to launch new certificate programs in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and the other one in Data Science. IIT Roorkee will launch both these programs on Coursera in early 2021. The six-month certificate program in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will consist of video lectures, hands-on learning opportunities, team projects, tutorials, and workshops. In addition to providing the coding knowledge and mathematics necessary for building AI and ML expertise, the program will also teach classical ML techniques and provide hands-on programming experience with Tensorflow for model building, robust ML production, and powerful experimentation. The certificate program in Data Science claims to equip professionals looking to build skills in data science, machine learning, critical thinking, data collection, data visualization, and data management. The program will help develop Python and SQL programming skills necessary for a career in data analytics.

Apply machine, deep and reinforcement learning to finance to crack the markets.

The eCornell Machine Learning Certificate Program consists of 7 two-week courses aimed at developers, software and data engineers, data scientists and statisticians. Interested parties can take a pre-test to gauge their level of knowledge.

As a data scientist who has been in the profession for several years now, I am often approached for career advice or guidance in course selection related to machine learning by students and career switchers on LinkedIn and Quora. Some questions revolve around educational paths and program selection, but many questions focus on what sort of algorithms or models are common in data science today. With a glut of algorithms from which to choose, it's hard to know where to start. Courses may include algorithms that aren't typically used in industry today, and courses may exclude very useful methods that aren't trending at the moment. Software-based programs may exclude important statistical concepts, and mathematically-based programs may skip over some of the key topics in algorithm design. I've put together a short guide for aspiring data scientists, particularly focused on statistical models and machine learning models (supervised and unsupervised); many of these topics are covered in textbooks, graduate-level statistics courses, data science bootcamps, and other training resources (some of which are included in the reference section of the article).

The introduction of two new game systems -- Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube -- fueled a buying frenzy this holiday season. But those are just the consoles. Now, the question is: Who's going to create all the new games? Three dozen people signed up for a new program at the University of Washington, hoping they'll be among the lucky ones. The UW's yearlong, evening Certificate Program in Game Development begins Jan. 10.

The job market for individuals with analytical skills is hot, and it's only getting hotter. A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute puts the situation in perspective, citing a shortfall of nearly 200,000 professionals with strong analytical skills by the year 2018. Businesses are looking to colleges and universities to help fill that gap, asking them to provide their students with the analytical skills they need to fill many of these currently vacant analytical roles. How students can prepare for a career in analytics, and the role universities play in preparing them, is the focus of Dursun Delen's recent article, Mandate for STEM Educators, found in the August issue of INFORMS magazine. Given the shortage, Delen, a professor of business analytics within the Department of Management Science and Information Systems at the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, says educators haven't had a "mandate this clear since the space race of the 1960s."