Win a trip to the Imagine Cup World Finals with new Hello Cloud Machine Learning activities!

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02/01/2016

Master cloud computing with Microsoft Azure and you could win $1,000!

Did you know that every month a student pockets $1,000 USD for winning the Hello Cloud sweepstakes? Now we’ve sweetened the deal by partnering with the Azure Machine Learning team to present the 2016 Hello Cloud Machine Learning Award. The Azure team will choose two students to win the trip of a lifetime to Microsoft Headquarters for the Imagine Cup World Finals. While there, they’ll also get to meet with the Azure Machine Learning team. The prize package is another great motivator to teach yourself cloud computing!

To compete in Hello Cloud, you just register and complete one or more Hello Cloud activities, which we describe below. Every activity you complete gives you another chance to win $1,000. You only have to do each activity once to have your name in the $1,000 sweepstakes month after month! Take what you learn from the new Azure Machine Learning activities, expand on them, and submit to the Azure Machine Learning Award for a chance to win a trip to the Imagine Cup World Finals.

Now, onto our newest activities:

Activities Four and Five: Azure Machine Learning Churn Prevention and Intervention

The Machine Learning Churn Prevention and Intervention Lab includes two new Hello Cloud student activities where you combine introductory machine learning with a basic online game.

What is this project about?

“Churn” is a term used when a consumer stops using a good or service. It is a common scenario with customer data, and also takes place in online games. A gamer at risk of churning is tempted to stop playing. In order to keep a gamer involved, developers use machine learning to identify potential gamers who may churn, and then take steps in the game to intervene. Based on past player history or data for similar players over time, is a gamer likely to quit? If so, developers can automate the machine to offer them a bonus, achievement, or another incentive to stay and play.

What technologies will I use?

This contest integrates Azure Machine Learning with a web app hosted in Azure App Service. You build, train, score, and evaluate models in the Azure ML Studio, then publish a machine learning model as a web service. You then take a basic game, connect it to your Azure ML service, and publish it to the web. No prior experience with machine learning or ASP.NET web development is required.

To complete this activity, you need a Microsoft Account, an Azure Subscription, and Visual Studio 2015.

How do I participate?

Follow the tutorial available in the lab PDF. The first four steps involve Azure Machine Learning, and the final two steps involve publishing the web app to Azure App Service. You will learn some basics about machine learning and can access links to additional content in the lab if you want to dig deeper.

Activity Four Steps – Azure Machine Learning Experiment

Follow the first four steps involving Azure Machine Learning in the tutorial. When you’re ready, publish your Azure Machine Learning experiment to the Cortana Analytics Gallery as an unlisted experiment. Copy the experiment URL and paste it into our Hello Cloud Activity 4 submission field from your dashboard.

Activity Five Steps – Azure Machine Learning Web App

Follow the last two steps involving Azure Machine Learning in the tutorial. When you’re ready, copy the web app URL and paste it into our Hello Cloud Activity 5 submission field from your dashboard.

How can I win one of two trips to the Imagine Cup World Finals and to meet the Azure Machine Learning team?

For automatic eligibility for the 2016 Hello Cloud Machine Learning Award for one of two trips to the Imagine Cup World Finals, simply register for the Hello Cloud Challenge. The Award contest will show in your Imagine Cup dashboard.

Winners will be chosen by the Azure Machine Learning team. The most creative and inventive web or mobile game app developed with the churn analytics AML API will win. Entries will also be evaluated on how well students use the SVM or boosted decision tree models from the tutorial.

Modify your results from the tutorial, or create something new leveraging the APIs—just make sure to think outside the box! To participate, all you have to do is copy the URL of your final project into the submission field for the Hello Cloud Machine Learning Award. The two winning entries win an all-expenses paid trip to the Seattle area for the Imagine Cup World Finals and to meet the Azure Machine Learning team! See the Azure Machine Learning Award rules and regulations to learn more.

Get Your Azure subscription and your chances to win today!

Join the thousands of students that are skilling up on cloud computing for a monthly chance to win $1,000 and now a chance to win a trip to the Imagine Cup World Finals!

With Microsoft Azure, you get a free subscription with no credit card required. You can start creating web apps, running databases, machine learning games and more. And now, you can access Azure Mobile Apps, SQL Database and Notification Hubs.

Learn more and register for your free Microsoft Azure account today. Then, register for the Hello Cloud contest to start developing and winning!

Join the Ranks of the Hello Cloud Winners and register today!

Congratulations to the monthly Hello Cloud sweepstakes winners:

November Winner: Firas Mdimagh of Tunisia
December Winner: Jozsef Kecskesi of Ireland
January Winner: Jose Giori Herran Escobar of Colombia

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