UC Tech community members from across the system put their cloud skills to the test in an AWS Game Day Challenge — tackling real-world engineering puzzles, reducing costs for a fictional company, and strengthening collaboration along the way.
Cloud Engineers Rise to the Challenge
UC Tech community members from across the state recently competed in an AWS Game Day focused on cloud engineering challenges. This gamified learning event challenged participants to solve real-world technical problems using AWS solutions. The format is designed to sharpen cloud skills while fostering teamwork. Hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the game-day-style competition brought together IT professionals from UC Davis, UC Davis Health, UCLA Health, UC Santa Barbara, and the UC Office of the President, with events held both virtually and in person across California.
In this hands-on exercise, teams worked through AWS cost-optimization challenges — reducing infrastructure costs while keeping services running for a fictional company called Unicorn Rentals. Each scenario tested participants’ ability to balance performance and efficiency using tools such as auto-scaling, Graviton instances, load balancing, and serverless computing.
UC teams collaborated virtually during the AWS Cloud Engineering Challenge, applying real-time AWS best practices.
Collaboration and Hands-On Learning
Participants applied AWS best practices in real time, collaborating and problem-solving to make their systems more efficient and resilient. The structure encouraged participants to divide and conquer, taking on specialized roles in compute, networking, storage, and serverless.
“While a few of us are experts, others might have some limitations with AWS knowledge — so we’re kind of learning as we go,” said one participant, capturing the day’s spirit of hands-on discovery.
Friendly Competition and Top Teams
After several hours of fast-paced problem-solving, the top-scoring teams emerged:
🥇 UC Davis Health – Low Budget Ballers
🥈 UCLA Health – Bad News Bruins
🥉 UC Office of the President – Savings Sasquatches
The AWS GameDay scoreboard shows UC Davis Health’s “Low Budget Ballers” in first place, followed by UCLA Health’s “Bad News Bruins” and UCOP’s “Savings Sasquatches.”
Beyond the friendly rivalry (and virtual trophies), participants agreed that the true reward was the opportunity to learn together and strengthen cross-campus collaboration.
Expanding Opportunities to Learn
According to the AWS UC Account Team, more Game Days are planned for the coming year, expanding opportunities for UC staff and other public-sector technologists to develop hands-on experience with AWS tools. These events not only build technical skills but also foster community across UC’s distributed IT teams.
“It’s work — but fun work. We learned so much by just jumping in together.”
Scenes from the Challenge
First prize – Team 2 – UC Davis Health
2nd place – Team 7 – UCLA Health
Third place – Team 9 – UC Office of the President
Images courtesy of UCOP and AWS Game Day participants.
