Update: Applications to this program are now closed. You can access the FREE AWS Deep Racer course here.
Today, we are excited to announce our newest offering to expand students’ machine learning deep learning skills: the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge from Amazon Web Services (AWS).
This new scholarship program will enable students to acquire skills in machine learning and test their skills in the world’s first autonomous racing league – the AWS DeepRacer League. Top performing students in the DeepRacer League will also have the opportunity to earn their way to a full scholarship to the Machine Learning Nanodegree program with Udacity.
The DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge from AWS
As part of the program, students will learn to create, train, and fine-tune a Reinforcement Learning model in the AWS DeepRacer 3D racing simulator. As learners work through the program, they’ll benefit from a Udacity-supported student community where they can collaborate and support their peers, get feedback on their work, participate in exclusive webinars and more.
AWS’ support and investment will make an unlimited number of seats available for the AWS DeepRacer: Driven by Reinforcement Learning course, developed by AWS Training and Certification. The AWS DeepRacer is a 1/18th scale race car which gives students a hands-on way to get started with Reinforcement Learning (RL). RL is an advanced machine learning (ML) technique and is broadly useful when the reward function of the desired outcome is known but the path to achieving it is not and requires a lot of iteration to discover.
As part of the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge, students can participate in the AWS DeepRacer League and compete for one of the top spots in the league. The 200 top-performing students will then go on to earn a full Machine Learning Nanodegree program scholarship.
To learn more and apply to this scholarship program, visit our Scholarship Page. Applications open on August 1.
New Course: AWS DeepRacer: Driven by Reinforcement Learning
The Scholarship program incorporates a brand-new free course, AWS DeepRacer: Driven by Reinforcement Learning.
The course is designed to give you hands-on experience with RL by helping you build, train and deploy models in AWS DeepRacer so you can compete in the official AWS DeepRacer League. The course starts off by orienting you to AWS DeepRacer before diving into RL. You’ll have several opportunities to build, train, and evaluate your own RL models, and then deploy them to the physical car. By the end of the course, you’ll have your own optimized RL model that you can enter into a virtual or physical circuit of the AWS DeepRacer League.
“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.”
—Sebastian Thrun, Founder, President, Executive Chairman, Udacity
Expanded Collaboration: AWS and Udacity
AWS and Udacity first joined forces in April 2019 to build the Machine Learning Nanodegree program. Since then, the program has seen thousands of enrollments in over 100 countries. This new scholarship program aims to grow the skills of the machine learning developer community that will build the next generation of machine learning using tools like reinforcement learning in a fun and accessible way.
Now, with the addition of the AWS DeepRacer: Driven by Reinforcement Learning free course to the Udacity-AWS catalog—and the creation of the new DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge from AWS —both organizations welcome new learners focused on mastering some of the newest and most important machine learning tools.
Are you ready to join the races? Are you interested in machine learning, and ready to gain expertise with cutting-edge Reinforcement Learning tools and techniques? Then apply to the DeepRacer Scholarship Challenge from AWS today!
