The week ended with the exciting news that Bad Seeds qualified for the Bosch Future Mobility Challenge 2024. Of the 80 teams that took part, only 24 were selected to move on to the next stage of the competition, the semi-finals/finals, which will be held from 15 to 19 May in Romania.
The team, formed by L.EIC students Félix Martins, Pedro Madureira, Rita Lopes, Sofia Pinto, M.EIC student, Guilherme Sequeira, and DEI Professor, Alexandra Mendes, performed “exceptionally well” and impressed the jury with their “dedication, hard work and creativity”.
BFMC2024 is an international technical competition started by the Bosch Engineering Centre Cluj-Napoca in 2017. Every year teams of bachelor’s and master’s students are invited to develop autonomous driving and connectivity algorithms in 1/10th scale vehicles (such as lane keeping, navigating junctions, reacting to traffic lights, navigating based on location data and, of course, reacting to other traffic participants such as other cars or pedestrians), provided by the company, to navigate in a designated environment that simulates a miniature smart city.
The students work on their projects in collaboration with Bosch experts and teachers over several months to develop the best-performing algorithms. The best teams are selected for the finals and the 3 winners will be awarded a cash prize of €7000, €5000 and €3000 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
There will also be a €1000 prize for the best first time team, and highlights for the team elected by the public and the team with the best presence in social media.
Romania’s third largest city and one of the main academic, cultural, industrial and commercial centres of this country, which is considered by many to be the most enigmatic in Europe, will welcome the Bad Seeds with open arms and we can only wish them an excellent result in the competition and, above all, that it will be an unforgettable experience!