AWS reorganizes DeepRacer League to encourage more newbies

AWS launched the DeepRacer League in 2018 as a fun way to teach developers machine learning, and it's been building on the idea ever since. Today, it announced the latest league season with two divisions: Open and Pro.

As Marcia Villalba wrote in a blog post announcing the new league, AWS DeepRacer is an autonomous 1/18th scale race car designed to test [reinforcement learning] models by racing virtually in the AWS DeepRacer console or physically on a track at AWS and customer events. AWS DeepRacer is for developers of all skill levels, even if you don't have any ML experience. When learning RL using AWS DeepRacer, you can take part in the AWS DeepRacer League where you get experience with machine learning in a fun and competitive environment."

Why AWS is building tiny AI race cars to teach machine learning

While the company started these as in-person races with physical cars, the pandemic has forced them to make it a virtual event over the last year, but the new format seemed to be blocking out newcomers. Because the goal is to teach people about machine learning, getting new people involved is crucial to the company.

That's why it created the Open League, which as the name suggests is open to anyone. You can test your skills and if you're good enough, finishing in the top 10%, you can compete in the Pro division. Everyone competes for prizes, as well, such as vehicle customizations.

The top 16 in the Pro League each month race for a chance to go to the finals at AWS re:Invent in 2021, an event that may or may not be virtual, depending on where we are in the pandemic recovery.

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