SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Lawrence Tech University (LTU) beat 28 other universities from four different countries to win their sixth straight self-driving cars championship on Monday.
Universities from the United States, Canada, India and Japan competed this year at a parking lot on Oakland University’s campus in Rochester. LTU has won each Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) Self-Drive Challenge competition since 2017 — there was no competition in 2020 due to the pandemic.
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LTU’s team director professor C.J. Chung said the challenge gets more difficult each year. This year, teams had to complete a short loop and a long loop around the parking lot while maneuvering around obstacles.
One obstacle vehicles needed to ignore was a red octagon marked “SOUP” instead of “STOP.” Another fake stop sign was marked “IGVC.”
“We had new team members, and they did a great job this year to win again,” Chung said. “The big improvement was using brain-inspired deep learning technologies in action, such as identifying the fake stop sign and avoiding objects in the road.”
LTU’s team included undergraduate and graduate computer science students.
Team captain Justin Dombecki was a key member of Chung’s research to include technology called Robotic Technology Kernel for the vehicle used in the competition. Dombecki graduated in May with a Master of Science in computer science.
Graduate team members included mechanical engineering graduate Devson Butani and Master of Science in computer science graduate Austin Ramsey. Butani is currently studying for a master’s degree in computer science.
Undergraduate team members include Ryan Kaddis, who is entering his fourth year in LTU’s accelerated five-year Bachelor and Master of Science in computer science program, and computer science student Adilur Choudhury who is perusing a master’s degree while working as an associate software engineer. Team co-advisors included adjunct professor of computer science Nick Paul, and adjunct professor of mechanical engineering Giuseppe DeRose, who is also a computer science graduate student.