Udacity, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launch the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge for students

Silicon Valley-based ed-tech platform, Udacity has recently announced the launch of the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge in association with Amazon Web Services (AWS). As part of the scholarship program, students will get to expand their machine learning and deep learning skills, and put them to test in the AWS DeepRacer League, the world’s first autonomous racing league. Top 200 performers in the DeepRacer League will proceed to receive a full scholarship to Udacity’s Machine Learning Nanodegree program.

The scholarship program also adds a brand-new free course to the Udacity-AWS catalogue, AWS DeepRacer: Driven by Reinforcement. Students can create, train, and fine-tune a Reinforcement Learning model in the AWS DeepRacer 3D racing simulator through the course. Udacity will also supplement the learning experience by connecting program participants with its global network of peer-supported student community and allowing them to participate in educational webinars. This will enable learners to engage, collaborate, and share constructive feedback with each other.

The AWS DeepRacer is a 1/8th scale race car designed to enable students to proactively engage with Reinforcement Learning (RL). An advanced machine learning technique, RL is employed to discover new iterations to reach a known outcome. Thanks to the involvement of AWS, an unlimited number of global learners can participate and compete in the RL-powered DeepRacer league.

Speaking on the launch of the new program, Sebastian Thrun, founder, president, executive chairman of Udacity said: “There simply aren’t enough people, who are equipped with machine learning skills. That’s why AWS and Udacity share a commitment to train machine learning talent. I’m confident that the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge from AWS will empower learners to master Reinforcement Learning and land some of the most exciting and in-demand jobs in the field.”

“Through the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge, our goal is to make this exciting field fun and accessible so that more and more people are encouraged to enter this domain. We are pleased to collaborate with AWS and are confident that the collaboration will enhance the learning experience for our students,” added Ishan Gupta, managing director, Udacity India.

The Machine Learning Nanodegree program is the product of the Udacity-AWS partnership established in April 2019. By now, the program has registered thousands of enrolments across 100 countries. With the launch of the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge, both Udacity and AWS have taken another step towards nurturing the next generation of machine learning and Reinforcement Learning talent.