KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is set to cultivate interest in the robotics field through the virtual 2021 ROBONEO AWS DeepRacer Challenge.
With 100 participants having registered so far, the programme's chairman Ts Julkifli Awang Besar said the competition aimed to help with the early adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology for a more diverse workforce of the future.
It is also part of efforts to boost Malaysia's TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) community learning ecosystem.
"Such initiative intends to bring together TVET students and the education community to collaborate and get hands on experience with machine learning through a cloud-based virtual racing simulator.
"The virtual competition will see participants putting their creativity and acquired skills to the test by designing learning machine models," he said, adding that the last day of registration for the online competition is tomorrow.
The programme is jointly organised by Politeknik Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Creative Economy and Innovative Centre (SCEIC), Papar Community College, Kinabalu Coders, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Educate Singapore.
It is also supported by the Higher Education Ministry.
During the course of the competition, participants will get the opportunity to build their machine learning models and compete on virtual tracks while diving deep into advanced reinforcement learning and upskilling with machine learning.
The competition is divided into Politeknik Malaysia Category for all students from Politeknik Malaysia; Kolej Komuniti Malaysia Category for all students from Kolej Komuniti Malaysia with IT background; and Open Category for secondary schools in Sabah as well as other learning institutions in Malaysia (college, university, community).
The top three winners of each category will receive medals, certificates and cash prizes.
Being the main sponsor for the challenge, SCEIC hoped to see more participants taking interest in the robotics field, particularly in Sabah, in efforts to achieve the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The centre's programme specialist and community builder Fazlan Thomas said there was a lack of exposure on robotics among young Sabahans as compared to other states, unless they already had an interest in the field.
"We are in the process of promoting SCEIC itself to Sabahans. Our objective in driving the industry will be through entrepreneurship, technology, innovation and creativity, to some extent can provide exposure to all on the importance of the TVET system.
"We need to think ahead, what are the strategies for Sabah to have its own experts in robotics, Internet of Things, and machine learning among others in five to 10 years' time.
"Programmes like the 2021 ROBORNEO AWS DeepRacer Challenge is one of the great initiatives we can consistently organise together with other stakeholders to create more talents and experts at a young age to be the state's assets in the near future," he said.