WASHINGTON – On 11 March 2022, the U.S. Army will kick off its second premier Data Science (DS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Professional Development Challenge. The challenge will be realized as a series of discrete competitions that will run through 2022 and into 2023. Team registration opens on 11 February, 2022, and closes on 10 March, 2022. Teams can access the challenge registration form at the following link: https://www.obtportal.army.mil/EDA/DeepGreen.
The 2022/23 Deep Green challenge will focus on the perception capabilities of ground autonomous navigation systems that utilize Computer Vision (CV), Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar), and AI algorithms in off-road environments. The first competition, running through June 2022, will focus on building out a semantic image segmentation system using only camera system data from the Warthog frame.
Each participant in the challenge will work with industry-leading experts in a collaborative learning environment. The participants will include Data Scientists, AI Engineers, Statisticians, and Operations Research analysts. They will all enjoy the opportunity to improve their skills and knowledge, and have a lot of fun as they develop data-driven approaches that improve the business and warfighting of the Army.
Preparation for this year’s challenge began early in July as the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) approached the Office of Business Transformation (OBT) with a proposal to shape a series of competitions around ongoing efforts to develop an all-terrain perception capability for the Warthog autonomous vehicle. According to Mr. Bakari Dale, the Army’s Senior Advisor for Enterprise Data Science & AI, “The 2022 Deep Green challenge is a wonderful opportunity for OBT’s Office of Enterprise Data Analytics (EDA) to partner with a premier Army organization focused on cutting-edge scientific discovery and technological innovation.”
COL Cedric Gaskin, the Deep Green program manager, also points out that “the potential impact of the Deep Green challenge is huge, as evidenced by results from last year’s Challenge.” According to COL Gaskin, “the participants in the 2021 challenge established strong data-supported relationships between previously unrecognized key indicators and high-level outcomes that are of high importance to senior decision-makers.”
In order to remain adaptable, challenges and competitions like this ensure the Army is leaning forward, thinking differently, and anticipating changes in a dynamic and ever changing operational environment. At the conclusion of this year’s competition, the results, lessons learned, return on investment, and impact of the winning model will be presented to the Army Analytics Board (AAB) and shared throughout various forums within the broader Army and Defense communities.
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