NXP India, one of the largest design centers for NXP Semiconductors N.V., organised the ‘Smart Car Race Design Challenge 2021’ in association with TOS (Time of Sport), an India-based University Engagement Group and India Licensee for F1 Car Races in Schools. The Smart Car Race Design Challenge is the first competition organised under NXP’s flagship platform ‘Artificial Intelligence In Mobility’ (AIM), launched exclusively for Indian university engineering students in January 2021. The AIM platform is created to build a collaborative connectivity with Academia, promote R&D culture among students, develop problem-solving attitude, make innovators of tomorrow and create career opportunities for the young cohort and make them industry ready in the field of Next Gen Smart Embedded System Design, through real life future system design challenges.
Smart Car Race Design Challenge is the first tech competition on the AIM platform focusing on the most up-to-date technologies such as AI/ML Algorithm, Sign-Recognition, Sensor, Motion Detection, Computer Vision, Image Processing etc. Students were invited to create a car prototype and race it on virtual tracks on Gazebo simulator avoiding dynamic obstacles like moving cars, walking human beings, signal for start-stop, etc. Registrations for the challenge were invited in March 2021 and witnessed participation from 87 Universities from 24 states in India, 621 registrations for Design Challenge, 750+ webinar training attendees and 450+ active participation on Discord for project brainstorming.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners stand to win cash prizes of INR 50,000, INR 30,000 and INR 20,000 respectively and 6 Special Theme Winners will take home INR 10,000 each. Other benefits for the winners include an internship opportunity with NXP, meet and learn from the industry experts and technical and career mentorship throughout graduation.
While congratulating the winners, Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and India Country Manager, NXP Semiconductors said, “It was amazing to see how young innovators have shown interest in learning the dynamics of new-age technologies like AI/ML and craft innovative prototypes. The Smart Car Race Design Challenge will open up the horizon for engineering students who are looking to explore the integration of cutting-edge technologies towards a specific application focus in the emerging smart world. The participants demonstrated tremendous team efforts and made the challenge successful with the direction and training provided by a team of experts from NXP.”
In his address Lars Reger, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NXP Semiconductors said, “NXP has always been focused on driving innovation in collaboration with industry, academia, and society. Smart and Autonomous cars are the future of mobility and initiatives like these will help in preparing students for the automotive space. Interestingly, challenges like these will encourage innovation, imbibing skills like team management which will further open career opportunities. I hope that thousands of students in India would join us in the similar challenges in future as well and help solve the emerging technology and application focused problems with fun and collaboration.”
Yashraj Singh, Founder and CEO, Time of Sports said, “Super excited and proud to conclude the gala nationals of India’s first ever challenge based on Artificial Intelligence in Mobility. The participation, the enthusiasm, the hunger to go beyond by all our talented participants has geared us up for the bigger, the better, the groundbreaking Season 2. Stay tuned.”