V&A Dundee has been transformed into a car racing circuit for a day as part of a city initiative to showcase the skills needed by young people to develop a career in the local technology sector.
Racing cars of 1/18th scale whizzed around a track at the museum in a championship designed to test teams to teach the vehicles to drive using artificial intelligence.
The Deep Racer event is being organised by Amazon Web Services (AWS) as part of Dundee Digital Fortnight which is also connecting with young people during a series of events(link is external) across the city.
These will explain the skills that are required to work in the digital sector and showcase how they are applied to real life projects.
Dundee Digital Fortnight aims to inspire the future workforce needed to take the local industry to the next levels.
AWS is also staging two other activities in Dundee as part of the fortnight. The Get IT event will encourage girls aged 12-13 to consider a career in tech by challenging long standing gender stereotype.
Meanwhile AWS will also be launching their reskilling programme, AWS re/Start, with a reception for local tech employers.
Dundee Digital Fortnight is being co-ordinated by the city council along with a range of partners including Abertay and Dundee universities, Dundee & Angus College, Amazon Web Services, Waracle, Developing the Young Workforce Dundee & Angus, Skills Development Scotland and Showcase the Street.
The fortnight is taking place up to November and 21 and coincides with the Esports Scotland event at Dundee Contemporary Arts.
Teams of students from Abertay and Dundee universities and Dundee & Angus College will took part in the DeepRacer challenge. You can find more details about the cars here(link is external)
Ken Harley, Head of Education, UK & Ireland, AWS said, “We’re excited to bring AWS DeepRacer to Dundee. It’s an opportunity for students from any discipline to see machine learning brought to life. Racers use reinforcement learning, an advanced machine learning technique, to learn the basics of machine learning, deploy their model onto the AWS DeepRacer car, and compete for glory. Tech is an exciting sector to work in, and at AWS we want to inspire everyone to get involved.”
Dundee City Council city development convener Councillor Mark Flynn said: “These events organised by Amazon Web Services are sure to inspire young people to make choices and develop skills to help them pursue a career in our vibrant technology sector.
“We want as many of them as possible to play a part in Dundee’s digital future, so it is vital the partners can encourage them into appropriate training pathways to prepare them for the opportunities that lie ahead.”
Cecile Bonnet, AWS GetIT Programme Leader, said: “We’re really looking forward to launching AWS GetIT in Dundee, and working with schools and young people in the city. The programme is designed to inspire young people, and girls especially, to become tomorrow’s tech innovators and leaders.”
Claire Spiller, Senior Manager, AWS re/Start, EMEA, said: “Employers tell us that there aren’t enough people with digital skills in the local area. AWS re/Start aims to create positive, regional social impact by re-skilling local people. The free-to-access programme builds a new pipeline of technical, cloud talent, by providing in-demand tech knowledge and skills to capable, local people. We’re looking to engage with employers from Dundee and the wider area to share more information, and explore how AWS re/Start can help them to hire the right people to help their digital teams and wider business to thrive.”
University of Dundee
Nobel Prize winning poet and honorary graduate Seamus Heaney has described the University of Dundee as ‘having its head in the clouds and its feet firmly on the ground.’ The ability to be both aspirational and down-to earth and to blend ground-breaking intellectual achievement with practical applications, has given the University its distinctive character.
Abertay University
A modern university with a long history and a clear sense of our distinctive mission, highly regarded for our academic performance in areas with genuine relevance and impact on society and the economy, and with a community of talented students and academics who make us the success we are.
V&A Dundee
V&A at Dundee will be an international centre of design for Scotland. It will celebrate Scotland's historic importance in design and host major exhibitions of outstanding design, helping people understand their own and others' cultural heritage.
Dundee & Angus College
Dundee and Angus College is moving away from traditional thinking and focussing much more on careers not courses. It wants the people of the Dundee and Angus region to be better informed and prepared for the career options available to them, no matter what stage they are at.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
DYW Tay Cities
Developing the Young Workforce Tay Cities (DYW Tay Cities ) is one of several regional DYW groups across Scotland. We help implement the Scottish Government DYW strategy, which aims to reduce youth unemployment and help young people get the right skills and experiences to move from education into employment.
Skills Development Scotland
In support of youth employment, SDS is one of the delivery partners for the Scottish Government's guaranteed offer of a place in education or training for all 16 to 19-year-olds through Opportunities for All.
