Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday announced winners of the first-ever DeepRacer Women’s League in India, held to boost women students to learn machine learning (ML) via a Cloud-based virtual racing simulator.
Helen Thomas, a doctoral student from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, won the event with a lap time of just 33:33 seconds. Surbhi Agrawal, a Bachelor of Technology student from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, became the first runner-up, and Kashish Bansal, a Bachelor of Technology student from the Indian Institute of Technology, Indore the second runner-up.
Helen received an Amazon voucher worth Rs 100,000, an Amazon Fire TV Stick, and the chance to compete with racers around the world at the international AWS DeepRacer League Championship Cup, which will take place at AWS re: Invent in November. Surbhi and Kashish also received Amazon vouchers worth Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively, as well as Amazon Fire TV Stick devices.
The AWS DeepRacer Women’s League India 2021 competition was open to women students over 18 years of age who are enrolled with an academic institution in India. More than 17,000 women students showed interest in participating with students progressing through their Regional Community Races, to qualify for the National Community Race.
Participants who registered for the competition learned the basics of ML via enablement sessions conducted by AWS and subsequently participated in the Regional Community Race on April 12. The top 200 then made it to the National Community Race on April 16, and the top 15 from this round eventually participated in the Grand Finale on April 21.
“At AWS, we believe that technology should be built in a way that’s inclusive, diverse, and equitable. The AWS DeepRacer Women’s League – India 2021 is a conscious effort to inspire women students towards careers in technology, enable them to easily adopt ML, and help in the creation of a more diverse workforce of the future,” AISPL President, Public Sector, AWS India and South Asia, Rahul Sharma, said.
“AWS is focused on democratizing ML services and making it available to the entire developer community, and is working very closely with public and private sector organizations in India to accelerate the adoption of ML,” he added.
