Virtually Free GTC: 40,000 Developers and AI Researchers Sign Up to Access Hundreds of Hours of No-Cost Sessions at GTC Digital

Online event helps thousands learn new skills in AI, data science, deep learning and HPC, starting Tuesday, March 24.
by Greg Estes

Editor’s note: Headline updated March 26 with new number of registrants.

Just three weeks ago, we announced plans to take GTC online due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Since then, a small army of researchers, partners, customers and NVIDIA employees has worked remotely to produce GTC Digital, which kicks off this week.

GTC typically packs hundreds of hours of talks, presentations and conversations into a five-day event in San Jose.

Our goal with GTC Digital is to bring some of the best aspects of this event to a global audience, and make it accessible for months.

Hundreds of our speakers — among the most talented, experienced scientists and researchers in the world — agreed to participate. Apart from the instructor-led, hands-on workshops and training sessions, which require a nominal fee, we’re delighted to bring this content to the global community at no cost. And we’ve incorporated new platforms to facilitate interaction and engagement.

Accelerating Blender Cycles with NVIDIA RTX: Blender is an open-source 3D software package that comes with the Cycles Renderer. Cycles is already a GPU enabled path-tracer, now super-charged with the latest generation of RTX GPUs. Furthering the rendering speed, RTX AI features such as the OptiX Denoiser infers rendering results for a truly interactive ray tracing experience.
Accelerating Blender Cycles with NVIDIA RTX: Blender is an open-source 3D software package that comes with the Cycles Renderer. Cycles is already a GPU-enabled path-tracer, now supercharged with the latest generation of RTX GPUs. Furthering the rendering speed, RTX AI features such as the OptiX denoiser infers rendering results for a truly interactive ray-tracing experience.

We provided refunds to those who purchased a GTC 2020 pass, and those tickets have been converted to GTC Digital passes. Passholders just need to log in with GTC 2020 credentials to get started. Anyone else can attend with free registration.

Most GTC Digital content is for a technical audience of data scientists, researchers and developers. But we also offer high-level talks and podcasts on various topics, including women in data science, AI for business and responsible AI.

What’s in Store at GTC Digital

The following activities will be virtual events that take place at a specific time (early registration recommended). Participants will be able to interact in real time with the presenters.

Training Sessions:

  • Seven full-day, instructor-led workshops, from March 25 to April 2, on data science, deep learning, CUDA, cybersecurity, AI for predictive maintenance, AI for anomaly detection, and autonomous vehicles. Each full-day workshop costs $79.
  • Fifteen 2-hour training sessions running April 6-10, on various topics, including autonomous vehicles, CUDA, conversational AI, data science, deep learning inference, intelligent video analytics, medical imaging, recommendation systems, deep learning training at scale, and using containers for HPC. Each two-hour instructor-led session costs $39. 

Live Webinars: Seventeen 1-hour sessions, from March 24-April 8, on various topics, including data science, conversational AI, edge computing, deep learning, IVA, autonomous machines and more. Live webinars will be converted to on-demand content and posted within 48 hours. Free. 

Connect with Experts: Thirty-eight 1-hour sessions, from March 25-April 10, where participants can chat one-on-one with NVIDIA experts to get answers in a virtual classroom. Topics include conversational AI, recommender systems, deep learning training and autonomous vehicle development. Free. 

The following activities will be available on demand:

Recorded Talks: More than 150 recorded presentations with experts from leading companies and universities around the world, speaking on a variety of topics such as computer vision, edge computing, conversational AI, data science, CUDA, graphics and ray tracing, medical imaging, virtualization, weather modeling and more. Free. 

Tech Demos: We’ll feature amazing demo videos, narrated by experts, highlighting how NVIDIA GPUs are accelerating creative workflows, enabling analysis of massive datasets and helping advance research. Free. 

AI Podcast: Several half-hour interviews with leaders across AI and accelerated computing will be posted over the next four weeks. Among them: Kathie Baxter, of Salesforce, on responsible AI; Stanford Professor Margot Gerritsen on women in data science and how data science intersects with AI; Ryan Coffee, of the SLAC National Accelerator Lab, on how deep learning is advancing physics research; and Richard Loft, of the National Center of Atmospheric Research, on how AI is helping scientists better model climate change. Free.

Posters: A virtual gallery of 140+ posters from researchers around the world showing how they are solving unique problems with GPUs. Registrants will be able to contact and share feedback with researchers. Free. 

For the Einsteins and Da Vincis of Our Time

The world faces extraordinary challenges now, and the scientists, researchers and developers focused on solving them need extraordinary tools and technology. Our goal with GTC has always been to help the world’s leading developers — the Einsteins and Da Vincis of our time — solve difficult challenges with accelerated computing. And that’s still our goal with GTC Digital.

Whether you work for a small startup or a large enterprise, in the public or private sector, wherever you are, we encourage you to take part, and we look forward to hearing from you.