AWS 101 for Researchers — Hands-On Workshop

NC State Bioinformatics Research Center | Monday, June 8, 2026

Join the Bioinformatics Research Center for a hands-on workshop designed to help researchers get started with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for research computing, data storage, and machine learning workflows.

Whether you are working with large datasets, running complex simulations, or exploring scalable computing tools, this workshop will introduce practical AWS services that can support bioinformatics and computational research.

Workshop Link (for reference): catalog.workshops.aws/aws-101-for-researchers

Schedule

• 8:30–9:00 a.m. – Check-in & Networking
• 9:00–9:10 a.m – Welcome & Introductions
• 9:10–9:30 a.m. – Presentation – Intro to AWS for Researchers — What is cloud? Why does it matter for Bioinformatics?
• 9:30–11:30a.m. – Hands-On Workshop – AWS 101 for Researchers
• 11:30a.m.-12:00pm – Introduction to AWS HealthOmics
• 12:00p.m.- Boxed Lunches

Who Should Attend

This workshop is ideal for:

• Master’s and PhD students in bioinformatics, computational biology, and related life sciences programs
• Faculty interested in cloud-enabled research
• Researchers working with large datasets or computational workflows
• Participants with little or no prior AWS experience

No prior AWS or cloud experience is required.

Workshop Topics

Participants will be introduced to foundational AWS services and research applications, including:

• Amazon EC2 — scalable virtual machines for research workloads
• Amazon SageMaker Studio — Jupyter notebooks and data science environments
• Amazon S3 — scalable object storage for research data
• Cloud computing basics for bioinformatics research
• Machine learning, AI, storage, and education-focused use cases

What Attendees Should Bring

Please bring:

• A charged laptop
• Access to reliable Wi-Fi
• No AWS account is needed