This submit is co-written with Jennifer Bergstrom, Sr. Technical Director, ParsonsX.
Parsons Company (NYSE:PSN) is a number one disruptive know-how firm in vital infrastructure, nationwide protection, area, intelligence, and safety markets offering options throughout the globe to assist make the world safer, more healthy, and extra linked. Parsons gives providers and capabilities throughout cybersecurity, missile protection, area floor station know-how, transportation, environmental remediation, and water/wastewater therapy to call a number of.
Parsons is a builder group and invests closely in worker improvement applications and upskilling. With applications akin to ParsonsX, Parsons’s digital transformation initiative, and – ‘The Guild,’ – an employee-focused group, Parsons strives to be an employer of alternative and engages its workers in profession improvement applications year-round to create a workforce of the long run.
On this submit, we present you ways Parsons is constructing its subsequent technology workforce through the use of machine studying (ML) and synthetic intelligence (AI) with AWS DeepRacer in a enjoyable and collaborative manner.
As Parsons’ footprint strikes into the cloud, their management acknowledged the necessity for a change in tradition and a basic requirement to teach their engineering activity power on the brand new cloud working mannequin, instruments, and applied sciences. Parsons is observing trade tendencies that make it crucial to include AI and ML capabilities into the group’s strategic and tactical decision-making processes. To greatest serve the shopper’s wants, Parsons should upskill its workforce throughout the board in AI/ML tooling and how you can scale it in an enterprise group. Parsons is on a mission to make AI/ML a basis of enterprise throughout the corporate.
Parsons selected AWS DeepRacer as a result of it’s a enjoyable, interactive, and thrilling problem that appealed to their broader vary of workers and didn’t mandate a big stage of experience to compete. Parsons discovered that AWS has many devoted AWS DeepRacer specialists within the area who would assist plan, setup and run a sequence of AI/ML occasions and challenges. Parsons realized success of this occasion can be pushed by environment friendly mechanisms and processes the AWS DeepRacer group has in place.
Parsons’ purpose was to upskill their workers in an pleasing and aggressive manner, with digital leagues amongst peer teams and an in-person occasion for the highest racers. The training initiative in partnership with AWS was comprised of 4 phases.
First, Parsons hosted a digital reside workshop with AWS specialists within the AI/ML and DeepRacer group. The workshop taught the fundamentals of reinforcement studying, reward capabilities, hyperparameter tuning, and accessing the AWS DeepRacer console to coach and submit a mannequin.
Within the subsequent section, they hosted a digital group league race for all collaborating Parsons workers. Fashions have been optimized, submitted, and raced, and winners have been introduced on the finish of racing. Members within the digital leagues have been comprised of particular person contributors and frontline managers from numerous job roles throughout Parsons, together with civil engineers, bridge engineers, methods and software program engineers, knowledge analysts, undertaking managers, and program managers. Becoming a member of them as contributors within the league have been enterprise unit presidents, SVPs, VPs, senior administrators, and administrators.
Within the third section, an in-person league was held in Maryland. The highest 4 contributors from the digital leagues noticed their fashions loaded into and raced in bodily AWS DeepRacer vehicles on a monitor constructed onsite. The highest 4 rivals at this occasion included a market CTO, a undertaking signaling engineer, a undertaking engineer, and an engineer intern.
The fourth and closing section of the occasion had every of the 4 rivals present a technical walkthrough of the methods used to develop, prepare, and take a look at their fashions. By way of AWS DeepRacer, Parsons not solely showcased the impression this occasion was in a position to make globally throughout all of the divisions, but additionally that they have been in a position to create a memorable expertise for contributors.
Over 500 workers registered from numerous enterprise models and repair organizations throughout Parsons worldwide proper after an announcement of the AWS DeepRacer problem was printed internally. The AWS DeepRacer workshop noticed unprecedented curiosity with over 470 Parsons workers becoming a member of the preliminary workshop. The digital workshop generated vital engagement – 245 lively customers developed over 1,500+ fashions and spent over 500 hours coaching these fashions on the AWS DeepRacer console. The digital league was a convincing success, with 185 racers from throughout the nation collaborating and submitting 1415 fashions into the competitors!
The digital AWS DeepRacer league at Parsons offered a enjoyable and alluring setting with a number of iterations, studying, and experimentation. Parsons’ Market CTO, John Statuli, who was one of many high 4 contenders on the race stated, “It was a whole lot of enjoyable to take part on the AWS DeepRacer occasion. I’ve not carried out any programming in a very long time, however the mixture of the AWS DeepRacer digital workshop and the AWS DeepRacer program offered a straightforward manner by which I might take part and compete for the highest spot.”
On the closing race held in Maryland, Parsons broadcasted a companywide digital occasion that showcased a troublesome competitors between their high 4 rivals from three totally different enterprise models. Parsons high management joined the occasion, together with CTO Rico Lorenzo, D&I CTO Ryan Gabrielle, President of Linked Communities Peter Torrellas, CDO Tim LaChapelle, and ParsonsX Sr. Director Jennifer Bergstrom. On the occasion, Parsons hosted a webinar with over 100 attendees and a winner’s walkthrough of their fashions.
With such an awesome response from workers throughout the globe and an curiosity in AI/ML studying, Parsons is now planning a number of further occasions to proceed rising their workers’ knowledgebase. To proceed to upskill and educate their workforce, Parsons intends to run extra AWS DeepRacer occasions and workshops centered on object avoidance, an Amazon SageMaker deep dive workshop, and an AWS DeepRacer head-to-head race. Parsons continues to interact with AWS on AI/ML providers to construct world-class options within the fields of vital infrastructure, nationwide protection, area, and cybersecurity.
Whether or not your group is new to machine studying or able to construct on present expertise, AWS DeepRacer may help you get there. To be taught extra go to Getting Began with AWS DeepRacer.
In regards to the Authors
Jenn Bergstrom is a Parsons Fellow and Senior Technical Director. She is captivated with progressive technological options and methods and enjoys designing well-architected cloud options for applications throughout all of Parsons’s domains. When not driving innovation at Parsons, she loves exploring the world along with her husband and daughters, and mentoring various people transitioning into the tech trade. You’ll be able to attain her on LinkedIn.
Deval Parikh is a Sr. Enterprise Options Architect at Amazon Net Companies. She is captivated with serving to enterprises reimagine their companies within the cloud by main them with strategic architectural steering and constructing prototypes as an AWS professional. She can be an lively board member of the Ladies at AWS affinity group the place she oversees college applications to teach college students on cloud know-how and careers. She can be an avid hiker and a painter of oil on canvas. You’ll be able to see lots of her work at www.devalparikh.com. You’ll be able to attain her on LinkedIn.
