Race against the machine: AWS stages 1st DeepRacer Women’s League in SEA

MANILA: How about getting familiarized with machine learning through racing? Even better: It’s for the ladies. Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company, will stage world’s first AWS DeepRacer Women’s League in Southeast Asia.

In a release, AWS said “The event features a race using fully autonomous, scaled-down cars that have been trained to drive using reinforcement learning (RL), and is designed to encourage women in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to participate in technology by developing machine learning (ML) skills.” Aspirants need not have prior knowledge of ML, the study of computer algorithms that "improve automatically through experience." 

Female students of vocational institutions, polytechnics, and universities will be asked to race the AWS DeepRacer on simulated circuits. This will enable them to learn and explore ML in a new way as they train and run the DeepRacer.

The vehicle is a cloud-based, 1/18th fully autonomous race car built using Amazon Sagemaker and is powered by RL, a machine learning technique that is ideally suited for autonomous driving.

Participants will be provided access to AWS Educate, Amazon's global program providing students and educators comprehensive resource for building skills in cloud technology at no cost.

AWS Educate’s Machine Learning Pathway enables artificial intelligency (AI) learning, ML, and deep learning, and students can discover how technology can leveraged to realize innovations for solving real-world problems in diverse fields such as natural language processing, self-driving cars, enhanced data mining, and medical science.    

Said Amazon Web Services Worldwide Public Sector Managing Director for ASEAN Tan Lee Chew, “We understand the importance of building an inclusive workforce with diverse talent to help organizations to innovate, grow, and thrive… By hosting the very first AWS DeepRacer League for women here in Southeast Asia, we are offering female students the opportunity to learn new skills in advanced cloud technology. Helping women build critical skills for a more diverse and future-ready workforce will help power Southeast Asian economies.”

The first AWS DeepRacer Women’s League’s virtual race happens on August 1 in Thailand. It will be followed by events in Malaysia (August 8), Indonesia (August 15), the Philippines (August 22) August, and Singapore (August 29). 

Five participants with the fastest race time win US$300 worth of AWS promotional credits; the first three place-getters will also take receive a trophy. Three winners for each country advance to the grand finals in September, where they will be pitted with other Southeast Asian winners. Prize include AWS promotional credits valued at US$1,000 each, a high-end monitor, and a trophy. For more information, visit https://buildonasean.com/awsdeepracer/

The project is under the Build On, ASEAN 2020 hackathon of AWS, “where undergraduate students from vocational institutions, polytechnics, and universities, participate to solve challenges such as pandemic, air pollution, traffic congestion, and flood warning, using AWS promotional credits offered by the AWS Educate program.”

For more details on the AWS DeepRacer Women’s League 2020 or Build On, ASEAN 2020, check out http://buildonasean.com.

Photos from AWS

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