The AWS AI & ML Scholarship aims to help underrepresented and underserved high school and college students learn foundational machine learning concepts and prepare them for a career in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Machine learning is a powerful tool for training computers to do tasks that are too complex or time-consuming for humans. Udacity and AWS, in collaboration with Intel, are partnering to offer 2,500 Nanodegree scholarships to underrepresented and underserved students in high school and higher education institutions around the globe. The mission of the program is to offer an opportunity for students interested in a potential career in AI/ML.
Students can experiment with racing a virtual race car in the AWS DeepRacer simulator and achieve faster lap times by tuning the machine learning model powering the race car!
Those who want to test their models by racing virtual race cars in a competition can also join the new AWS DeepRacer Student League, a racing league just for students.
Students in high school and higher education institutions around the globe, ages 16+ Women, members of the African American/Black, Latinx, or Indigenous communities are encouraged to apply. To qualify for scholarships, students must complete training modules, pass knowledge-check quizzes, and have their machine learning model’s race car lap time performance place in the top 20th percentile of program participants. 2,000 qualifying students will win a scholarship for the AI Programming with Python Udacity Nanodegree program, designed to give scholarship recipients the foundational programming tools and techniques that are fundamental to machine learning
Phase 1: Students will first enroll in the AWS AI & ML Scholarship program through a dedicated platform where they will complete free training modules, pass knowledge-check quizzes, and power a virtual race car using AWS DeepRacer.
Phase 2: The Scholarship Program with Udacity will then award 2,000 students with a scholarship for the Udacity AI Programming with Python Nanodegree program (1,000 in a summer cohort and 1,000 in a winter cohort.) This four-month course teaches the foundational skills for obtaining a career in AI & ML, in a collaborative virtual class environment with mentorship from Udacity advisors.
Phase 3: All graduates from the winter and summer cohorts will be invited to take an assessment. The 500 students with the highest score on the assessment will earn a second Udacity Nanodegree program scholarship to help further prepare them for a career in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Additionally, the top 500 students in the AWS AI & ML Scholarship program will have access to one on one mentorship opportunities from tenured Amazon and Intel machine learning experts to provide career advice.
