The 17th Smart Model Car Contest was hosted in Hanyang University Olympic Gymnasium, on July 11th. The event was organized by Hanyang University Automotive Engineering Division, hosted by ACE Lab and sponsored by the leading semiconductor company Infineon, MathWorks Korea, Continental, and Mando. The contest has been held since 2003 to encourage students’ interest in Embedded Control System, which is a key technology in self-driving, smart vehicle field which applies to green cars such as hybrid or electric cars. There have been 1700 teams, 7500 students participated in the contest since the beginning of the contest, and this year 100 teams across the nation with 450 students in total enrolled to compete. The competitors fiercely contested with their own Embedded Control System. Many media paid attention to the contest, as the contestants are the future of automotive engineering.
This year’s competition was structured in the same way of last year where the winner is chosen based on the succession of all missions (Lane keeping control, School Zone, Collision Avoidance, Autonomous emergency braking), scores from the report and the driving record. Also, the final round took place in a complex arena with two lanes with dotted lines and school zone indicating cross-walk added to require the teams to accurately calculate the road signs and develop a higher level of the control algorithm. Because of the difficult level, not many teams made it to the final round. However, the ‘Shong-ji-na-ga-yo (swoosh here we pass by)’ from Soongsil University won the Infineon award, which is given to the 1st place winner. The team was awarded 10 million won prize. The ACE Lab award, the second award was given to ‘need more than 24 hours’ team from the University of Seoul. The team won 5 million won. Third place went to ‘microelectronic’ team from the Korea National University of Transportation with 3 million won prize. One million won prize was awarded to fourth to seventh place winners; ECR from Dongguk University, Choo Choo Train from Chung-ang University, ‘Open Your Mouth for the Award’ from the University of Ulsan, Eurachacha from Kyunghee University. All other teams that did not win the awards showed their passion and proudly presented their smart model cars. Teams awarded with Infineon Special award will visit the Infineon research center in Munich, and the teams who won the MathWorks Special Awards received one million one prize with MATLAB Simulink License, Student Version.
The competition once again confirmed that the nation has a bright future in the field. Professor Myoungho Sunwoo, the chief organizer said: “the teams are improving every year as the missions and competition evolve to bring true talent with high technology, and by emulating computer control system into model cars, the students will contribute in the development of Korean Automotive technology”.
