AutoDrive Team takes summer awards

A team of undergraduates and graduate students took home awards at AutoDrive Challenge™ II in Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 4-10.

The challenge was issued to collegiate student teams by GM and SAE in 2022 to develop a fully autonomous, self-driving car over the course of a four-year competitive process. Virginia Tech was one of ten teams invited to participate in the competition.  In the first year, students focused on perception algorithms and sensors, which were installed on a mobile cart.  In this past year, students were given a Bolt EUV car, which was modified and put through testing. At this point, the challenge required all the teams to bring their car to the MCity test facility at the University of Michigan, to test their autonomous nagivation around both stationary and moving objects. 

Virginia Tech's team fared well:

• MathWorks Simulation Challenge: 2nd place
• Overall Static – SAE AutoDrive: 3rd place

Team members participating in the MCity event included Rohit Rangaraj, Haley Rindfleisch, Heesang Han, Bin Kang, Collin Smith, Andrew Moomaw, Hunter Mollica, and Sriya Chakravarty.

Mentorship is provided by ME Associate Professors Steve Southward and Al Wicks, and ECE Professor Lynn Abbott. Student members of the team during competition season were: