A car with a mind of its own may sound like science fiction, but University of Rhode Island computer engineering students are proving it’s a reality. Three URI students designed and built an autonomous model race car that took first place in a national competition and gave them the opportunity to represent the United States against 19 other countries at the world championships in South Korea in August.

Geoffrey McElroy ’14, Cory Jalbert ’14 and David Cipoletta ’14 were classmates in a senior computer engineering course and chose to enter the competition as a grading option. Professor Qing Yang says the competition “is a good opportunity to inspire students to do real design. The best way to learn is by doing.”
The team programmed a 32-bit microprocessor to interface with a camera, motor, battery, wheels and sensors. They added intelligence by creating algorithms that learned from previous mistakes and kept the car on the hilly and curvy 100-foot racetrack. “Even if the track had been constantly changing, the car would have been able to adapt and handle it,” says Jalbert.
At the annual Freescale Cup in Rochester, N.Y., in April, their foot-tall car completed the course in 17.7 seconds, faster than 27 other teams, earning them the chance to compete in the ultimate battle: the world championships.
“It was amazing,” says McElroy. “It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.”
This isn’t the first year that Yang has encouraged students to enter the competition, and it’s not the first year the team met with success. Last year’s team placed second in the nation, narrowly losing to a team from the University of California at Berkeley.