The Technical Education College is a place where the staff is not only teachers, but also engineers and researchers, so they take part in various projects of their students. The recent successful projects are Tent Antenna (SOCOM) and Interactive Surface Viewer (General Dynamics). And this time, another project has been developed by a group of talented students.
Who Takes Part in the Project
The group of your researchers consists of 5 students. Three of them are from Technical Courses, 1 student is studying IT Engineering, and 1 of them is keen on Management. Of course, their teachers also help these guys to succeed. These students are:
- Henry Brown (CEN – 101) – developed an algorithm of autonomous movement of mechatronic platforms;
- James Miller (CEN – 212) – had been modeling communication spaces;
- Oliver Moore (CSP – 103) – supported background documentation;
- Lucas Thompson (EEN – 101) – developed the Synthetic Vision systems;
- Emma Johnson (CIM – 101) – prepared presentations, took care of the budgeting.
The Concept of the Project
The technology that inspired these students to develop a new project is self-driving car technology: these guys are sure that this idea can be a core of more complicated technical projects. For example, a convoy of self-driving vehicles to provide quick and autonomical delivery within the city. The specialization of this project is robotic technology and it requires the knowledge of students of different faculties.
It’s necessary to choose proper details and construct the models so that they will be able to interact with almost any surface. Plus, it’s important to equip these models with the proper filling that will be their ‘brain’. These miniature cars must ‘understand’ what obstacles are in front of them and how to overcome them, so they must be neatly programmed. Moreover, this system will save fuel and provide more quick and economical transportation.
Sponsorship
To conduct all the necessary research and develop a group of self-driving convoys to enter the market, the students needed about $380,000. And the university was able to provide students with half this amount. For this reason, FirstMile Ventures offered to make investments in this project. But guys weren’t sure that they would be able to follow each milestone and justify the investment.
For this reason, they picked a certain amount to put into their own investment. They decided to play at an online casino and that was a fundamental decision for the project. James Miller comments on it in this way: ‘we couldn’t believe it when we saw the desired amount on the screen: $200,000 is really something and we hope that this jackpot will contribute to the world of science a lot’.
Final Thoughts
Today, the students go on working on the project together with their teachers and other enthusiasts who are interested in the development of this type of self-driving vehicle. For sure, it will be an innovative solution that will glorify the Technical Education College.