Mouser Electronics has announced its sponsorship of the NXP Cup 2024 and a special online prize draw to celebrate the occasion. The NXP Cup is an EMEA-based autonomous car competition, presented by NXP Semiconductors, which is designed to provide students with real-world experiences in autonomous vehicle programming and building. Mouser has sponsored the contest since 2016.
The student teams who signed up in October will need to construct, code, and race a self-driving model car, having time to hone their designs before the campus races take place in April and May across EMEA. This year’s event will feature over 150 teams representing several EMEA countries.
The winning teams of the campus races will partake in the finals, which will take place in May, with the location being announced soon. Teams will compete in the ‘Speed Race’ where they will have to complete an undisclosed track layout in the fastest time, before completing the ‘Lap of Honour’. For this, contestants will have to slow down their cars to ensure they stop automatically within 10 cm of an obstacle placed on the racetrack. The winning teams will receive €6000, with the winners of the ‘Lap of Honour’ being presented by Mouser.
“At Mouser, supporting students is rooted in the foundation of the company’s earliest days,” states Mark Patrick, director of technical content, EMEA at Mouser Electronics. “The NXP Cup serves as an exceptional platform and initial step for students beginning their engineering career. Throughout the competition, students will face real use-case challenges as a team, gaining practical engineering skills and teamwork capabilities, all while having fun.”
Participants must use basic skills in embedded software programming, circuit design, and the enthusiasm to learn to create their autonomous race cars. To outperform the other teams, students will need to refine the mechanical and electronic elements of their designs, deploying advanced NXP components such as hall effect sensors, gyroscopes, cameras, and Lidar systems. Additionally, NXP’s Mobile Robotics Suite will enable teams to create sophisticated algorithms for their vehicles.
The NXP Cup, formerly known as the ‘Smart Car Race’, started in 2003 with 80 teams of students competing at the Hanyang University in the Republic of Korea. Subsequently, the contest has expanded to China, India, Malaysia, Latin America, North America, and then Europe in 2012. The growth of the competition impacts 15 000 students from more than 500 schools, every year.
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