Thanks for joining the Azure workshop!
In this workshop you can choose one of several interactive learning modules to work through in your own time. At the same time we'll work through one module on the monitor / projector for you to follow along if you prefer. Feel free to ask for help or ask questions at any point. We're very informal
We have a great learning platform that can keep track of your progress and even award you fun badges and achievements for completion called Microsoft Learn.
Here is a list of great learning modules that expect no prior knowledge. We picked these modules because they will come in handy for your hackathon projects!
Perhaps you already attended Cassie's workshop on Cognitive Services and Azure App Service - if so, these topics might look familiar.
In either case, all you need to do is:
- pick a module
- follow the instructions
- ask questions if you have any!
Important: Some modules expect that you already have an Azure subscription. Activate your free student subscription, Azure for Students, if you haven't already done so.
1. Create and publish a natural language machine learning model with LUIS
In this module, we'll introduce you to the concept of language understanding (LUIS) and how to create a LUIS application with Intents
In this module you will:
Gain an understanding of what LUIS is Learn about key features of LUIS such as intents and utterances Build and publish a LUIS model
Bernd's comments: This technology is particularly great for chat bots or voice-based interaction where you want to interpret the input in a more natural way. For example, even if you only defined an action for "stop" you'd want words like "halt" to be interpreted the same.
2. Discover sentiment in text with the Text Analytics API
Learn what your customers are really saying about your product or brand when they send feedback. We'll create a solution that uses Azure Functions and the intelligence of the Text Analytics API to discover sentiment in text messages.
In this module, you will:
Learn about Text Analytics API Sign up for a Text Analytics API key Design and build a service with Azure Functions that uses the Text Analytics API to sort text feedback Read and write Azure Queue storage messages in a function app with the help of bindings
Bernd's comments: Want to know just how positive or negative a restaurant review is? This technology can help you.
3. Identify faces and expressions by using the Computer Vision API in Azure Cognitive Services
Learn about the Computer Vision API in Azure that allows you to identify facial details in pictures.
In this module you will:
Learn what the Face API is Understand concepts related to the Face API Explore the Emotion API
Bernd's comments: In addition to detection of faces and their emotions, you can also use this set of APIs to detect who (among a list of people) is in a given picture. This might be useful if you want to store and recall user preferences or details based on their appearances in images or video.
4. Classify images with the Microsoft Custom Vision Service
Create, train and test a custom image classification model using the Custom Vision Service to accurately identify paintings from famous artists.
In this module, you will:
- Create a Custom Vision Service project
- Train a Custom Vision Service model with tagged images
- Test a Custom Vision Service model
- Call your custom model's prediction endpoint over HTTP
Bernd's comments: This technology how you can easily create the silly "hot dog, not hot dog" app as seen in Silicon Valley. Other quick ideas are things like "what dog breed do you look like?" etc
5. Process images with the Computer Vision service
Use the Computer Vision API to analyze images for insights, extract text from images, and generate high-quality thumbnails.
In this module, you will:
Create a Cognitive Services account. Get information about the visual content found in an image. Generate a thumbnail of an image. Detect and extract printed text from an image. Detect and extract handwritten text from an image.
Bernd's comments: This is a great API to describe the contents of an image. Useful when building interfaces for vision impaired people, or if you wish to take any programmatic actions based on image contents.
6. Host a web application with Azure App service
Azure App Service enables you to build and host web applications in the programming language of your choice without managing infrastructure. Learn how to create a website through the hosted web app platform in Azure App Service.
In this module, you will:
Use the Azure portal to create an Azure App Service web app Use developer tools to create the code for a starter web application Deploy your code to Azure App Service
Bernd's comments: App Service is how you easily host your web application or backend (for example for a mobile app) on Azure.
I find the module a bit confusing. If it doesn't make sense, don't worry - there are many other ways to deploy apps to Azure. Here are my favorite instructions:
- For Node.js use these instructions
- For Python use these instructions
Too easy? Pick any of the other learning modules and feel free to ask us if you're stuck. We'll be happy to help!
- Microsoft Docs, technical documentation with samples and detailed tutorials
- Azure for Students, lots of free Azure services, plus $100 credit for everything else annually. No credit card required, but requires student email address.
- Azure Portal - this is the main web interface for Azure to use all the various services, but you can also use your favorite terminal / shell with the Azure CLI
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