Building the future on deep learning - NVIDIA Jetson™ Developer Challenge case study

NVIDIA along with ChallengeRocket.com has organized a brilliant online challenge focused on use of Artificial Intelligence in solutions that benefit all of us in fields like security, healthcare, or education, the NVIDIA Jetson™ Developer Challenge. This case study will highlight the most interesting projects submitted to the hackathon in question with the intention of shedding the light on the potential that lies in AI, as well as importance of organizing similar events.

NVIDIA is the global leader in GPU and deep learning. Founded in 1993 with computer graphics in mind, it quickly expanded to professional sectors, as well as automotive industry, and made immense advancements in Artificial Intelligence. Today their products can be found in majority of PC workstations, laptops, and autonomous vehicles.

The numbers

Number of submitted projects: 114

Number of participants: 2370

Reach: participants from 80 countries

The projects

The following three paragraphs will present the awarded projects submitted to the challenge. All of them aimed to improve our lives in areas such as education or security.

Educate using robots

Sim-to-real Autonomous Robotic Control is an excellent project that sheds light on how education might be improved in the future. Most important knowledge one can gain is the information of the world around them, and, believe or not, the same applies to robots themselves. If we are to progress as a species, we need the computers to work for us, and there’s no more efficient way of achieving this goal than for robots to gain data to train themselves. This project was awarded first place in the NVIDIA Jetson™ Developer Challenge.

Develop tools for social workers

Nurses, doctors, firefighters, they all devote their time to serve us, they are the driving force of our society, so giving back to them is just a nice gesture. TITUS project was awarded second place in the NVIDIA Jetson™ Developer Challenge, and is a project that will aid firefighters. It’s an autonomous system meant for quick wildfire detection. It utilizes just a single camera that feeds data to SLAM. In case of fighting with such a force every second, every means of help counts, we believe TITUS will be an invaluable tool.

Save human lives, sacrifice the robots!

Although scarcely, disasters sadly do happen, be it floods, landslides, earthquakes, factory explosions, or storms. On-UAV realtime detection of storm damage focuses on the last case. Its purpose is to identify the areas affected by a given incident, assess the damage, and mark possible locations of victims on a map. The team behind this project was awarded third place. Rescuing victims of such events is equally dangerous for both the rescuer and the rescued. Instead of risking yet another human life it’s better to build robots to perform that task. Avitra - Reconnaissance Robot is system of motion sensing cameras that carry the operator’s movements over to the robot that’s on the site of the accident. The robot, in turn, provides live feed from cameras and uses AI to create a 3D map of its surroundings to aid spatial awareness of the operator. This brilliant solution received the Public Choice Award in the NVIDIA Jetson™ Developer Challenge.

The winners

The winners were announced on 29th of March at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference in Silicon Valley. To quickly recap, first place was awarded to Sim-to-Real Autonomous Robotic Control, second place to TITUS, third place to On-UAV realtime detection of storm damage, and Public Choice Award to Avitra- Reconnaissance Robot. To see all 114 projects submitted for the challenge click here.

This case study examined various types of projects suitable for a hackathon focused on use of Artificial Intelligence in application to everyday solutions. We all deserve the advancements in technology available today, which means any efforts towards making AI more integrated into our daily routines and infrastructure is now more important than ever before.

What this challenge had taught us is how incredibly diverse the applications of AI in everyday lives we might expect in a near future. Nearly every aspect of our daily routines has the potential to be improved with Artificial Intelligence, be it security, comfort of life or entertainment. What about developers? For them this challenge shows how inspiring technology can be. In their hands is the future, they will move our society forward with their hard work and dedication. Lastly, what did this challenge mean for us? It was one of the biggest milestones in our history, and having met each and every goal we had set for this hackathon we’ve learned more about ourselves than we ever expected.

Working with a global client like NVIDIA helped us spread our wings and opened up many doors. This was not the first time, however, that we’ve worked with such a big company. Our portfolio extends to include various projects with Sharp, Symantec, Oracle, Microsoft, Philips, and more. We are confident that we can help your business reach beyond horizon. Feel free to reach out to us with any and every question you might have, take a look at our offer. We will gladly assist you, help iron out all the details, and organize a successful challenge of your own.