SAS expands free learning software portfolio with new SAS^® Viya^® Workbench for Learners

To help students and teachers work faster and more efficiently, data and AI leader SAS has unveiled SAS Viya Workbench for Learners, a free cloud-based, on-demand compute environment that provides flexible programming environments and seamless tool integration. With support for both the SAS language and Python, users can quickly build models and analyze data, allowing students to gain valuable, real-world experience in cross-language proficiency, boosting their employability in a multi-tool world.

“The flexibility of Viya Workbench for Learners is unparalleled,” said Neal Lockhart, data science student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. “I love that I can choose either SAS or Python, providing me the strengths of both languages for any given task.”

Built upon Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), SAS Viya Workbench for Learners joins SAS’ portfolio of free learning tools alongside SAS OnDemand for Academics and SAS Viya for Learners, broadening the range of resources available for students and educators. With a lightweight but powerful environment, students and educators can quickly spin up a workbench to teach, learn and compare programming languages and rapidly build high-performance models with flexibility and ease using popular interfaces such as Visual Studio Code and Jupyter Notebook. In fact, the same high-performance algorithms found in SAS Viya, which are 30 times faster than the competition, are also available in SAS Viya Workbench for Learners, providing users with unparalleled speed and efficiency.

“Academics seek a development environment that accommodates their preferred coding languages and tools but also delivers power and speed,” said Liz Moran, Director of SAS Academic Programs. “With SAS Viya Workbench for Learners, they gain these advantages while leveraging the capabilities of SAS technology – maximizing productivity without sacrificing familiarity or flexibility.”

Learn more about SAS Viya Workbench for Learners. Students can also try Viya Workbench for Learners during the 2025 Curiosity Cup, a global student data science competition. Registration opens Dec. 1, 2024.

A screenshot of the SAS Viya Workbench for Learners product.