Hands-On Learning Through Racing: Signal processing and engineering education through the China National Collegiate Intelligent Model Car Competition

The Intelligent Model Car Competition (IMCC) of China is an annual collegiate contest where student teams design, build, and race a model car around a track, and the fastest car that completes the track without failure wins [1]. The IMCC is in collaboration with the global NXP Cup Challenge, which was formerly known as the Freescale Cup Challenge until the acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. by NXP Semiconductors [2]. Creating this smart, autonomous car requires students to develop the hardware and software of motor control to propel and steer their model cars. It provides a collaborative, competitive, and hands-on way for students to learn about and make a synergistic use of theories and techniques from undergraduate engineering studies, such as sensing and control, circuit design and implementation, and embedded system and software programming. The first competition, formerly known as the Smart Car Race, began in 2003 in South Korea with 80 student teams. Since then, the NXP Cup has expanded to China, India, Malaysia, Latin America, North America, and Europe, engaging hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of students a year [2], [3].