The 33rd Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), offers university student teams a comprehensive systems engineering experience that is at the very cutting edge and beyond a normal engineering education. It is multidisciplinary, theory-based, hands-on, team implemented, outcome assessed, and judged by a expert panel judged Design Challenge and the Autonomous Navigation (AutoNav) & Self Drive performance challenges. IGVC encompasses the very latest technologies impacting automotive, defense and other commercial development and focused on technologies of high interest to students and sponsor-based communities. Design and build of an Intelligent Vehicle fits well in a two-semester senior year design capstone course, or an extracurricular activity earning design credit, university student clubs and graduate thesis work. The deadline of an end-of-term competition is a real-world constraint that includes the excitement of potential winning recognition and financial awards while competing against US and international teams. Students at all levels of undergraduate and graduate education can contribute to the team effort, and those at the lower levels benefit greatly from the experience and mentoring of those at higher levels. Team organization and leadership are practiced, and there are roles for team members from business and engineering management, language and graphic arts, and public relations. Students solicit and interact with industrial sponsors who provide component hardware and advice, and in that way get an inside view of project engineering life cycle and opportunities for employment including resume submission for IGVC sponsor review.