AWS DeepRacer Competition Results

On April 5, 2024, 10 teams of RMU students competed in the first ever AWS DeepRacer Competition at RMU!

Student teams spent more than a month learning how to code algorithms in Python to drive AWS DeepRacers (mini autonomous vehicles) using machine learning. The teams trained their models and got to test them out on the AWS DeepRacer League race track in the UPMC Events Center for the competition. All of the winners are pictured below receiving their awards with Dean Frank Hartle and Amazon’s DeepRacer League Pit Crew Leader, Nicole Murray.

The First Place team (pictured below) in the undergraduate bracket was the “Top Secret Racers” team, Kelson Bowman, Anthony Guerrero, and Evan Brooks, whose car finished with a lap time of 00:09.133 seconds. Each of the team members won a $1,000 scholarship!

The Runner-Up team (pictured below) in the undergraduate bracket was the “Track Knights” team, Isaac Arnold and Lipika Ratakonda. Their car finished with a lap time of 00:09.166 seconds. Each team member won a $250 scholarship award.

The First Place team (pictured below) in the graduate bracket was the “Tigers” team, Linfeng Hao, Koushik Reddy Donthireddy, and Koyi Raghavamma (not pictured), whose car finished with a lap time of 00:07.757 seconds. This was an extremely competitive lap time and the team was encouraged to submit their model to the national AWS DeepRacer League! Each of the team members won a $1,000 scholarship.

The Runner-Up team (pictured below) in the graduate bracket was the “Vihan” team, Jason Gao, Deepthi Sri Kommagani, and Ravi Sri Sankar Nukavarapu. Their car finished with a lap time of 00:09.391 seconds. Each team member won a $250 scholarship award.

Congratulations to the winning teams! Overall, the competition was a great way for students to get involved with AI and machine learning, and get some hands-on experience with reinforcement learning models.

A huge thank you to our faculty mentors for all of your support in helping our teams through the coding and training phases of the competition: Dr. Natalya Bromall, Dr. Steve Mancini, Dr. Noory Etezady, Dr. Peter Draus, Dr. Parul Yadav (Rooney Scholar), and Phill Miller (CIO)!

Thank you also to our student helpers, our Announcer, Dakota Rideout and our Track Boss, Harry Lyons! Another thanks to our student PR team who were instrumental in securing sponsors for our raffle prizes: Elise Spath, Ella Donovan, Megan McGinnis, Kennedi Randolph, and Jesse Fitch.

We’d also like to send out a special thank you to our IT Team for such amazing support: Phill Miller, Paul Dewey, Dylan McKenna, and Ian Connolly.

Our sponsors for the raffle prizes were very much appreciated! These included:

M&S Consulting
Eat’n Park
Dunkin’ Donuts
Kendra Scott
The Sewickley Spa
Condado
Piada
Sam’s Club
RMU Colonial Cupboard

And a special thank you to our Amazon AWS Account Team and Pit Crew: Nicole Murray, Justin Marks, Eric Pierson, Brent Everman, Jacob Dishler, Jeremy McGriff, and Ope Usman.