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A grid shows images from the top Amazon Science articles of 2021, the year 2021 can be seen in an overlay
These are images from some of the most engaging stories published on Amazon Science in 2021.

The top Amazon Science articles of 2021

From quantum chess to robot arms to body fat percentage and ML-powered grocery shopping, these 10 articles resonated with readers in 2021.

By Staff writer
December 28, 2021
2 min read
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  1. An Amazon quantum computing scientist wins the first-ever quantum chess tournament
    A picture of Aleksander Kubica
    Aleksander Kubica, research scientist with the AWS quantum computing team
    Credit: Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

    Not only did Aleksander Kubica, a research scientist with the AWS quantum computing team, win the first-ever tournament, he did so having played quantum chess only once — the weekend before the event. Learn about his strategy and watch video from two of his historic matches.

  2. A conversation with Michael I. Jordan, Michael Kearns, and Bernhard Schölkopf
    Larry Hardesty, the Amazon Science blog editor, interviewed Amazon distinguished scientist Bernhard Schölkopf (top right) and Amazon Scholars Michael Kearns (bottom left) and Michael I. Jordan (bottom right).
    Larry Hardesty, the Amazon Science blog editor, interviewed Amazon distinguished scientist Bernhard Schölkopf (top right) and Amazon Scholars Michael Kearns (bottom left) and Michael I. Jordan (bottom right).

    On the cusp of the 2021 NeurIPS conference, the three Amazon-affiliated researchers — all of whom have given the conference’s major named lecture, the Posner lecture — talked about the accelerating interesting in machine learning, its implications for both tech and AI research, and the path forward for AI.

  3. Graceful AI
    Stefano 2.jpg
    Stefano Soatto, vice president of applied science for AWS AI.
    Credit: Todd Cheney

    Stefano Soatto, vice president of applied science for AWS AI, writes, "As machine-learning-based decision systems improve rapidly, we are discovering that it is no longer enough for them to perform well on their own. They should also behave nicely toward their predecessors. When we replace an old trained classifier with a new one, we should expect a smooth transition and a peaceful transfer of decision powers."

  4. A look at the science that powers Amazon's advanced robot arms
    A close up of the Robin robotic arm
    Robin must calculate how to identify, move, and sort parcels that may rest atop one another as they are presented via a conveyor.
    Credit F4D Studio

    Robin, one of the most complex stationary robot arm systems Amazon has ever built, brings many core technologies to new levels and acts as a glimpse into the possibilities of combining vision, package manipulation and machine learning. Learn what separates them from more traditional robot arms — and watch them in action.

  5. Why now is a 'particularly good time' to explore careers in robotics
    A split screen screengrab from a video interview shows Siddhartha Srinivasa, left, director of Amazon Robotics AI, and Nia Jetter, Amazon Robotics AI senior principal technologist, right
    Siddhartha Srinivasa, left, director of Amazon Robotics AI, and Nia Jetter, Amazon Robotics AI senior principal technologist

    In a video interview, Siddhartha Srinivasa, director of Amazon Robotics AI, and Nia Jetter, Amazon Robotics AI senior principal technologist, discuss inspiration, their roles at Amazon, and tips for pursuing a robotics career. Watch their informative and illuminating discussion about careers in robotics.

  6. A computer vision system that can accurately predict body fat percentage
    Halo App Body Feature2.png
    With Amazon Halo's Body feature, individuals can measure their own body fat percentage and track it through a personalized 3D model.

    A team of Amazon scientists discusses the challenges in developing a system that can accurately estimate body fat percentage and create personalized 3D avatars of users from smartphone photos. Learn how they utilized convolutional neural networks, and semi-supervised learning.

  7. ARA recipient aims to unite the deep learning community
    Michael Bronstein, the chair in Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London
    Michael Bronstein, an Amazon Research Awards (ARA) recipient, is also the chair in Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London
    Dino Dimopoulos

    Michael Bronstein, the chair in Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, is using pioneering machine learning to push the boundaries of drug design, among other things — including unifing the machine learning “zoo”.

  8. The science of operations planning under uncertainty
    An Amazon employee is seen making a delivery while an electric delivery van is parked behind him on a residential street in Los Angeles
    An Amazon employee is seen making a delivery while an electric delivery van is parked behind him on a residential street in Los Angeles
    About Amazon

    When Amazon announced it would purchase 100,000 custom electric delivery vehicles as part of The Climate Pledge, a team of scientists within the Amazon Logistics (AMZL) Research organization took on the challenge of determining the best strategy for deploying them. Based on sophisticated models that simulate Amazon’s shipments and external parameters like power availability in each city, the team is developing a plan to gradually electrify Amazon’s entire fleet.

  9. How machine learning is helping Amazon improve the grocery shopping experience
    Amazon Fresh Prime bag
    From forecasting to selection, Amazon Fresh scientists are developing machine learning models that seek to enhance the grocery shopping experience.

    From forecasting to selection, Amazon Fresh scientists are working through (often open) research challenges to develop machine learning models that seek to enhance the grocery shopping experience. Learn how Amazon Fresh is leveraging scientific innovation to meet increased consumer demand.

  10. Creating sustainable, data-driven buildings
    Sense, Act, and Scale 2
    The path to improving building energy efficiency can be paved with the framework of sense, act, and scale say Bharathan Balaji and Rob Aldrich

    Bharathan Balaji , an Amazon senior research scientist, and Rob Aldrich, senior sustainability strategist, write about what must happen to meet the United Nations Global Status Report goal of making buildings at least 30% more energy efficient in order to achieve Paris Agreement goals.

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Applied Scientist I, Amazon Fulfillment Technology , Amazon Fulfillment Technologies (AFT)
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Applied Scientist II, Alexa International Team
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Amazon’s Last Mile Team is looking for a passionate individual with strong optimization and analytical skills to join its Last Mile Science team in the endeavor of designing and improving the most complex planning of delivery network in the world. Last Mile builds global solutions that enable Amazon to attract an elastic supply of drivers, companies, and assets needed to deliver Amazon's and other shippers' volumes at the lowest cost and with the best customer delivery experience. Last Mile Science team owns the core decision models in the space of jurisdiction planning, delivery channel and modes network design, capacity planning for on the road and at delivery stations, routing inputs estimation and optimization. Our research has direct impact on customer experience, driver and station associate experience, Delivery Service Partner (DSP)’s success and the sustainable growth of Amazon. Optimizing the last mile delivery requires deep understanding of transportation, supply chain management, pricing strategies and forecasting. Only through innovative and strategic thinking, we will make the right capital investments in technology, assets and infrastructures that allows for long-term success. Our team members have an opportunity to be on the forefront of supply chain thought leadership by working on some of the most difficult problems in the industry with some of the best product managers, scientists, and software engineers in the industry. Key job responsibilities Candidates will be responsible for developing solutions to better manage and optimize delivery capacity in the last mile network. The successful candidate should have solid research experience in one or more technical areas of Operations Research or Machine Learning. These positions will focus on identifying and analyzing opportunities to improve existing algorithms and also on optimizing the system policies across the management of external delivery service providers and internal planning strategies. They require superior logical thinkers who are able to quickly approach large ambiguous problems, turn high-level business requirements into mathematical models, identify the right solution approach, and contribute to the software development for production systems. To support their proposals, candidates should be able to independently mine and analyze data, and be able to use any necessary programming and statistical analysis software to do so. Successful candidates must thrive in fast-paced environments, which encourage collaborative and creative problem solving, be able to measure and estimate risks, constructively critique peer research, and align research focuses with the Amazon's strategic needs.
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Alexa International is looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Applied Scientist to help build industry-leading technology with Large Language Models (LLMs) and multimodal systems, requiring strong deep learning and generative models knowledge. You will contribute to developing novel solutions and deliver high-quality results that impact Alexa's international products and services. Key job responsibilities As an Applied Scientist with the Alexa International team, you will work with talented peers to develop novel algorithms and modeling techniques to advance the state of the art with LLMs. Your work will directly impact our international customers in the form of products and services that make use of digital assistant technology. You will leverage Amazon's heterogeneous data sources, unique and diverse international customer nuances and large-scale computing resources to accelerate advances in text, voice, and vision domains in a multimodal setup. The ideal candidate possesses a solid understanding of machine learning, natural language understanding, modern LLM architectures, LLM evaluation & tooling, and a passion for pushing boundaries in this vast and quickly evolving field. They thrive in fast-paced environments to tackle complex challenges, excel at swiftly delivering impactful solutions while iterating based on user feedback, and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams. A day in the life * Analyze, understand, and model customer behavior and the customer experience based on large-scale data. * Build novel online & offline evaluation metrics and methodologies for multimodal personal digital assistants. * Fine-tune/post-train LLMs using techniques like SFT, DPO, RLHF, and RLAIF. * Set up experimentation frameworks for agile model analysis and A/B testing. * Collaborate with partner teams on LLM evaluation frameworks and post-training methodologies. * Contribute to end-to-end delivery of solutions from research to production, including reusable science components. * Communicate solutions clearly to partners and stakeholders. * Contribute to the scientific community through publications and community engagement.
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