Prof. Peisen Huang

The annual JI Smart Car Contest kicked off at the VG 100 Lab on October 26. Eighty-eight freshmen from 18 teams participated in this highly anticipated race, which was overseen by Prof. Peisen Huang, JI’s Associate Dean for Education and instructor of VG100, and also attended by many enthusiastic parents.

The Smart Car competition is a highlight of VG100, JI’s flagship course. It is the first major project that the freshmen have to tackle. Working in teams, students are required to design, gather materials, assemble, and test run the smart cars according to guidelines. The process demands knowledge in mechanics, microcontroller, and programming, which is a challenge to freshmen. Many The race track was made up of 2 parts. The first basic section was 19 meter long and required a minimum speed of 0.4 m/second. The second section comprised 3 challenging curves, each worth 10 points.students were nervous in the beginning. However, they overcame the difficulties after two months of trial and hard work.

The atmosphere of the race was intense and exciting. Students and parents packed around the tracks, cheering the running cars and holding breath for the stalled ones. After three hours of fierce competition, Team Inno’s smart car, which had been leading since the start, won the race with a high mark of 96.91. The first runner-up was Team Galaxy, with only 3.4 points behind.

After the race, many students commented that through the project, they have learned not only the knowledge but also problem solving and team work skills. Some parents remarked that they were proud of their children regardless the race results. They highly recognized JI’s innovative teaching model.

Winner lists:

Team Inno: Jinhuai Lu, Zimu Zhai, Mo Chen, Yijia Wang, Hongxi Jin

Team Galaxy: Tianyu Wang, Yueqiang Ni, Huadian Liu, Jiajing Luo, Boyin Zhang

Team Inno, the Champion

Team Galaxy, the First Runner-up