Students bring out intelligent model racing cars

BANGALORE: The Freescale Cup India — 2011 led by Freescale Semiconductor India, in collaboration with the Center for Electronic Design and Technology (CEDT) from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), entered its second year with participation from 35 colleges and 127 teams.The coveted event gained tremendous popularity since its launch last year when 22 colleges and 90 teams participated in the inaugural competition.The event is part of Freescale‘s global initiative to promote innovation among engineering students and offer them a hands-on opportunity to put their engineering skills to test by creating microcontroller (MCU) programming that enables model cars to perform optimally under test conditions during the race.The 33 finalists battled it out in the J N Tata Auditorium at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.“This is a great platform for students to explore their creativity by using some of the latest technology available for feature-rich smart cars,” said Guruswamy Ganesh, vice president and country manager for Freescale Semiconductor India.“Freescale intends to remain committed to initiatives that nurture the innovation eco-system.” This event showcased the collaborative and competitive spirits of the engineering students as they defined their concepts and projects, highlighting the progressive innovation ecosystem in India.“This initiative not only provides participants a chance to work on the nextgen technologies but also to broaden their horizons and give them an opportunity to demonstrate their creative abilities.” added Guruswamy Ganesh.In the competition, students were required to assemble an intelligent model racing car that automatically recognised the specially designed race track at the venue.Freescale provided technical support as well as the model car kits and development tools required to build a model racing car based on Freescale MCU technology.The event was the result of several months of challenging work in designing and assembling smart model cars for the race.The participating teams were judged by a panel of experts from the automobile industry, embedded systems domain and academia.The entries were judged on the basis of several parameters, including speed, design and technology.The team whose car completed the race with the best performance ratings on various parameters was declared the winner.The prize money for the six winning teams included first prize (Rs. 1,00, 000); second prize (Rs. 50,000), third prize (Rs. 25,000) and three consolation prizes (Rs. 10,000 each).“We always encourage opportunities like these where companies come forward to mentor our future talent,” said professor K Gopakumar, chairman of the CEDT.