The SZEnergy Team at Széchenyi István University is a student competition team mentored by the Vehicle Industry Research Center and engaged in the development and construction of electric vehicles. The team regularly participates in the Shell Eco-marathon, one of the world’s largest student competitions, and finished fourth in this year’s international Autonomous Programming Competition.
The competition was held online, with the students from Győr competing every day for nearly a month against 25 of the world’s best college and university teams. Competing against European, Asian and American institutions, the SZEnergy Team managed to outperform several renowned participants, including the University of California, Berkeley.
“The performance of the Széchenyi students deserves the utmost respect, as the competition included technical components that are at the forefront of today’s autonomous vehicle research: automatic path following, dynamic obstacle avoidance and energy optimisation. These present serious challenges even for professional researchers and engineers, let alone students, who nevertheless solved the complex tasks with high-quality solutions.”
– said Professor József Bokor, President of Széchenyi István University’s Vehicle Industry Research Center and member of the Board of Trustees of the Széchenyi István University Foundation, who personally congratulated the members of the Győr-based team. He said the students had met an exceptionally high professional standard, demonstrating not only strong theoretical knowledge but also considerable practical expertise. The professor also noted that students at Széchenyi István University should take advantage of the opportunities provided by the institution, as being a member of such a team, solving innovative challenges and competing internationally can provide a significant advantage later in the labour market.
An important aspect of the Autonomous Programming Competition is that students use state-of-the-art technologies to solve challenges relevant to the industry. This time, participants had to navigate a virtual vehicle through an urban simulation environment and locate 15 predefined checkpoints in the shortest possible time and distance while minimising the vehicle’s energy consumption. They also had to ensure that all traffic regulations were observed throughout the run.
“Finishing fourth is a tremendous achievement for us. We worked extremely hard for it, while learning a great deal and gaining a wealth of experience along the way.”
– said Mátyás Mesics, a developer in the SZEnergy Team’s Autonomous Department. He added that while the team was delighted with the result, they were already focusing on their next challenge, with another international competition scheduled for July.
“The competition in France, involving student teams from Europe and Africa, will no longer be held online but as an in-person event. We will compete there with our own physical vehicle and will have to prepare for challenges including autonomous path following, self-parking and obstacle avoidance.”
– explained the Széchenyi István University graduate in Computer Engineering.
More information about the Autonomous Programming Competition: Shell Eco-marathon Autonomous Programming Competition
Source: SZE News – Zsolt Papp
