Companies are amassing huge amounts of data and hiring small armies of data scientists and engineers to store and analyze it. However, there’s often a disconnect between technical data professionals and business decision makers. More and more, companies are looking for people who can bridge the gap and unlock the real value of big data by crafting impactful narratives supported by data visualizations. Recent Linkedin research even pointed to data presented as one of the top 10 most in-demand skills. To help people develop these important skills, Udacity is excited to announce the Data Visualization Nanodegree program.

“The ability to communicate effectively with data sets you apart professionally. Plenty of people can do the technical work or put together a fancy presentation. Creating clear data visualizations to support your viewpoints, and using your analyses to tell a narrative or make a recommendation, is a crucial 21st-century data skill” – Sam Nelson, Head of Content Strategy at Udacity.

Announcements, School of Autonomous Systems

The Quest to Engineer the Self-Driving Car: Expanded Partnership with Mercedes-Benz

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To train the next generation of engineering talent in self-driving car technology, lifelong learning pioneer Udacity is further expanding its learning partnership with Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America (MBRDNA). Today, we are excited to announce the Sensor Fusion Engineer Nanodegree program, built in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz was the first automotive manufacturer to open a research and development center in Silicon Valley in 1995. In September 2014, MBRDNA became one of the first automotive manufacturers to be issued with an official license by the state of California for testing self-driving vehicles on public roads.

“Sensor fusion is a crucial component of autonomous vehicles at Mercedes-Benz,” said Michael Maile, Manager of the Sensor Fusion and Localization team at MBRDNA. “Our partnership with Udacity is offering a great way of teaching engineers how to work with lidar, radar, and camera sensors to perceive the driving environment.”

Learning and Motivation, School of Data Science, Student Success

Life as a Udacity Student: Wakana Morlan’s Experience

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Last week we launched new support features including increased mentor support, career services, and flexible payment plans to help our students master the skills they’re learning. We highlighted one of the students, Mohamed Barakat, who was able to experience our new and improved learning programs before the public.

This week, we had an opportunity to speak with another student who is currently enrolled in one of our improved Nanodegree programs. Wakana Morlan is a marketing manager in San Francisco and currently enrolled in our Data Analyst Nanodegree program. She shared her experience within the program thus far and how her new skills will impact her career.

Learning and Motivation, Scholarships, School of AI, Student Success

Facebook Scholarship Fuels a Passion for Deep Learning

Last week we announced our latest collaboration with Facebook: Secure and Private AI Scholarship Challenge. This program builds on the previous momentum, aimed at a further expansion of student access to deep learning and AI tools. Just seven months ago we launched the PyTorch Scholarship Challenge from Facebook which saw 18,000 applications, 10,000 challenge scholars, and 300 full scholarship students from 149 countries starting the Deep Learning Nanodegree program in January.

Learning and Motivation, School of Autonomous Systems, Student Success

Life as a Udacity Student: Mohamed Barakat’s Experience

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This week we launched new support features for our Nanodegree programs designed to help our students master the skills they’re learning. Before sharing these new features with the public, we invited current Udacity students to experience our new and improved learning programs. One of those students is Mohamed Barakat, a biomedical engineer, living in Munich, Germany and currently working as a software engineer in the healthcare sector. He is enrolled in the Robotics Software Engineer Nanodegree program. We had a chance to chat with him about his current Udacity experience and how this program is impacting his skillset.

Announcements, Featured

Taking Udacity to New Heights

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Today, we are taking a huge step towards becoming the “University of Silicon Valley.” In the past decade, Udacity has become a global educational leader in fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. But to double down on student success, every student will now have technical mentors, expert reviewers, career coaches, and personalized learning plans on their side, in every Nanodegree program. Our learning programs — built with the best in Silicon Valley — have always been world class. But, the changes we have implemented today will take them to a whole new level.