Path to Autonomous
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General Motors and SAE International® partnered to sponsor the second year of the AutoDrive Collegiate Challenge™ to help students solve what GM calls “the greatest engineering challenge of our time” — a fully functional, self-driving car.
Eight college teams from the United States and Canada gathered at the University of Michigan’s Mcity self-driving test track for the second year of the AutoDrive Collegiate Challenge™, an autonomous vehicle engineering competition supported by General Motors and SAE International ®.
The teams spent the past year developing simulations, adapting hardware and coding software. They are all on a quest to solve what General Motors calls “the greatest engineering challenge of our time” — a fully functional, self-driving car.
The objective in this year’s competition was to engineer a car that can detect dynamic objects in the roadway and successfully navigate multiple lane changes by using autonomous technology. The ultimate goal of the competition, according to Kevin Dietrich, General Motors AutoDrive program leader, is for teams to demonstrate an SAE Level Four autonomous vehicle driving on a simulated road environment such as Mcity.
“It’s extremely important, especially for autonomous technology, to begin developing engineering skills before joining the workforce,” Dietrich said. “In today’s auto industry, having experience in autonomous engineering is a great asset for job recruitment.”
For the students, the AutoDrive Challenge™ represents an opportunity to get an early start on their engineering careers. Team members also have the chance to learn from AutoDrive “mentors,” senior engineers from General Motors who guide teams throughout the competition.
Angela Xydis and GM mentor Jon Gohl after completing their test drive at Mcity
Angela Xydis is a team member from Michigan Technology University and current General Motors intern. She said her team’s mentor played an integral role in the experience. “The part of AutoDrive that surprised me most was the complexity of it all. There are so many obstacles you must account for when developing the vehicle,” Xydis said. “Our mentor was there to answer all of our questions and be a supportive voice behind the scenes.”
Those obstacles served as the guidelines for the competition. Teams were judged based on how well their self-driving car operated when confronted with hazards including pedestrian traffic, speed limit and stop signs, and even wayward animals. On the final day of competition, teams were challenged with engineering a car that could drive itself through a full Mcity intersection, traffic lights, sidewalks and all.
The program exposes entirely new generations and demographics to engineering as a career path. Wendell Bates, a doctoral engineering student at North Carolina A&T University and second-year team member, said his team facilitates STEM-focused lessons for local students of all age groups, from elementary students to incoming college freshmen.
Dr. Mudalige supports Wendell Bates and a full team from North Carolina A&T University at this year’s AutoDrive Collegiate Challenge
“I didn’t know about the possibility of becoming an engineer until I was a senior in high school. This program has allowed us to create access and build know-how for the engineering field at young ages, especially among underrepresented populations,” Bates said. “It allows us to teach kids like me that they can be more than an entertainer or an athlete.”
General Motors has helped to expose 420,000 U.S. students to STEM through 76 nonprofits, as of June 2019. For General Motors, supporting this competition — the first of its kind in North America — is an important part of a concerted effort to build a STEM pipeline in grade schools throughout the U.S.