SZEnergy: Széchenyi István University student team among the best in the world
Source: SZE News – Zsolt Papp
The SZEnergy Team of Széchenyi István University has won 4th place at the Shell Eco-marathon Autonomous Programming Competition (APC), outperforming famous universities such as Berkeley, California. The team members were welcomed at the institute’s Automotive Research Centre. The university, which is at the forefront of engineering disciplines, is committed to providing practical training and promoting talent.
The SZEnergy Team at Széchenyi István University is a student team working on the development and construction of electric vehicles under the mentorship of the Automotive Research Centre. It is a regular participant in one of the world’s largest student competitions, the Shell Eco-marathon, where it came 4th in this year’s World Autonomous Programming Competition.
The competition was held online, and for nearly a month, students from Győr competed against 25 of the world’s top college and university teams every day. The SZEnergy Team managed to beat famous participants from European, Asian and American institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley.
“The performance of the students from Széchenyi deserves all the respect, as the competition included professional components that can be called the focal points of today’s autonomous vehicle research: automatic route tracking, dynamic obstacle avoidance, energy optimization. These are a serious challenge for professional researchers and engineers, let alone for the students, who solved the complex tasks with high-quality solutions.”
-said Professor Dr. József Bokor, President of the Vehicle Industry Research Centre at Széchenyi István University and member of the Board of Trustees of the Széchenyi István University Foundation, who also personally congratulated the members of the Győr team. As he said, the young people have reached a very high professional standard, which, in addition to theoretical knowledge, also shows a considerable practical preparation. The professor also pointed out that students of Széchenyi University should take advantage of the opportunities offered by the institution, as being part of the team, solving innovative tasks and competing at international level would be a huge advantage on the labour market.
The autonomous programming competition is all about students solving industry-relevant challenges using cutting-edge technologies. This time, the challenge was to use their virtual vehicle to find 15 pre-placed targets in an urban simulation environment, in the shortest possible time and distance, minimising the vehicle’s energy consumption. They also had to make sure that they obeyed all traffic rules during the race.
“The fourth place is a great achievement for us, we worked hard for it, but we also learned a lot and gained a lot of experience,” said Mátyás Mesics, developer of the autonomous department of SZEnergy Team. He added,
they are happy with the success, but they are already focusing on the next task, as another international competition is coming up in July.
“The competition in France, which will involve teams of students from Europe and Africa, will no longer be an online event, but a face-to-face one. There we will compete with our own real vehicle and will have to prepare for challenges such as autonomous tracking, autonomous parking and obstacle avoidance,” said the computer engineering student from Széchenyi István University.
Access the autonomous programming competition online:
https://www.makethefuture.shell/en-gb/shell-eco-marathon/2022-programme/virtual/autonomous