Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company, is launching the AWS DeepRacer Women’s League in Southeast Asia. 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. The virtual race is open to participants with no prior knowledge of ML, or who want to experiment with it for the first time.
Making machine learning fun and easy to learn
The AWS DeepRacer Women’s League will enable female students from vocational institutions, polytechnics, and universities to explore ML in a new way, as they train and race the AWS DeepRacer autonomous vehicles on simulated tracks. AWS DeepRacer vehicles are cloud-based, 1/18th fully autonomous race car that is built using Amazon Sagemaker and powered by RL - a machine learning technique that is ideally suited to autonomous driving.
Participants will have access to AWS Educate, Amazon's global program that provides students and educators with a comprehensive resource for building skills in cloud technology at no cost. Participants can enroll themselves on AWS Educate’s Machine Learning Pathway, to acquire knowledge in artificial intelligence (AI), ML and deep learning, and discover how technology can be used to create innovations to solve real-world problems in areas as diverse as natural language processing, self-driving cars, enhanced data mining, and medical science.
“At AWS, we understand the importance of building an inclusive workforce with diverse talent to help organizations to innovate, grow, and thrive,” said Tan Lee Chew, Managing Director for ASEAN, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services. “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.”
Race spanning five cities
The AWS DeepRacer Women’s League’s virtual race will kick off on 1 August in Thailand, followed by Malaysia on 8 August, Indonesia on 15 August, the Philippines on 22 August, and Singapore on 29 August. The 5 women with the fastest race time will win AWS promotional credits valued at USD $300 each, and the first three place-getters will also take home a trophy. The three winners for each country will advance to the grand finale, where they will compete with winners from other countries in Southeast Asia. The grand finale will be held in September, and prizes will include AWS promotional credits valued at USD $1,000 each, a high-end monitor, and a trophy. More details about the race are available at https://buildonasean.com/awsdeepracer/
The AWS DeepRacer Women’s League 2020-ASEAN is a part of AWS’s Build On, ASEAN 2020 hackathon, 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.