Freescale Cup: Fast and furious, they assemble model cars

Engineering students from across the country put their skills to use at the Freescale Cup India-2011. The participants were required to assemble a model racing car that automatically recognised the specially-designed race track at the venue.

In a close finish, HORS-BORDS from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Surat, emerged as the winner.

Team MCIS from Manipal Centre of Information Science and Team Vishwa from SVNIT, Surat, followed in the second and third positions, respectively.

“The competition is all practical. At every step of the competition, the student is faced with practical problems. What’s more important than working hard is working smart,” said Vivek Kholia, a 4th year student of SVNIT, Surat, a member of the winning team HORS-BORDS.

Atit Jariwala and Amit Tank were the other members in the team. The team completed the 30 metre-track in 25.68 seconds. Taking help from their seniors, the participants spent around 3-4 hours every day in preparation of the competition. “Besides, during the competition, one has to think quickly,” said Kholia.

The competition, organised by Freescale Semiconductor, India, in collaboration with the Centre for Electronic Design (CEDT) from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), was open for undergraduate engineering students.

The fourth edition of the event saw participation from 127 teams. In its second year, the competition had seen about 33 teams participating in the finals.

Umanand L, professor, CEDT, IISc, said that the competition aimed to address the lacunae between theory and application of academics. “Most students are good at the theory aspects but when it comes to problem solving, they stumble. Hence, we want to give them a challenge which will make them use their theoretical skills,” he said. The preparation time involved around 2-3 months. Students need to be in tune with processors, embedded systems, and controls, among others. “There are multiple domains that come into the picture, and students just need to learn to apply what they have leant in their regular course,” Umanand said. The consolation prizes went The Nebulae from BMS College of Engineering, Team XLNC from Thapar University, Team BMS Races from BMS College of Engineering.