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Student competition on “Autonomous Driving” awards winnersFirst student competition of Porsche Engineering Romania in cooperation with UTCN

Stuttgart/Cluj-Napoca. A student competition on ”Autonomous Driving”, organized by Porsche Engineering Romania SRL, subsidiary of the Porsche Engineering Group GmbH, in cooperation with the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, reached its final challenge and designated its winners on May 23. Throughout the past four weeks, seven teams of engineering students of Cluj universities have developed an original software for an autonomously driving model car, with a scale of 1:18. On the competition day, the participating model cars competed against each other to complete a series of trials on a model track. In the end, the team “Bits Please” from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca convinced the jury and won the competition.

At the beginning of April, Porsche Engineering Romania and its academic partner, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, launched a student competition focusing on Autonomous Driving. It was dedicated to both Bachelor and Master engineering students of all universities in Cluj-Napoca. Committed students were thereby offered the opportunity to apply their know-how within a practical project and, most importantly, to get in touch with experienced engineers and receive their professional feedback.

”This student competition is a great opportunity to give highly ambitious students the chance to experience software engineering at first hand”, says Dirk Lappe, Technical Director of Porsche Engineering Group GmbH. “The students have worked very hard on their model cars and the results are great.”

Last week, the teams presented their projects in front of a jury formed of professors of the TU Cluj and engineers by Porsche Engineering Romania. The competing model cars have been tested to follow the track and avoid a static obstacle. ”The great number of applicants shows that there is an increasing motivation for applied projects among students, who are seeking new extracurricular opportunities to learn and gain practical experience in the software engineering field”, said Marius Mihailovici, Managing Director of Porsche Engineering Romania. ”These kinds of talented and motivated students are exactly what we are looking for in Cluj.”

The members of the winning team “Bits Please” will now have the chance to travel to Germany to meet Porsche engineers and experience the Porsche spirit first hand. Next to the winning prize, the second and third place were also rewarded. Moreover, there was also a style prize for the best-looking model car.

The Technical University and Porsche Engineering Romania became partners in the beginning of 2016, in order to enrich the academic environment of automotive engineering in Cluj-Napoca and provide students with practical learning and career opportunities. “The student competition organized together with Porsche Engineering was the next step within this successful partnership. I am happy to see that the cooperation pays off on every level” confirms Prof. Dr. Vasile Topa, rector of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. The competition has been the first joint competition between the academic institution and the engineering services provider.

About Porsche Engineering

Porsche Engineering Romania SRL is a 100% subsidiary company of Porsche Engineering Group GmbH and therefore firmly integrated in the global network of Porsche Engineering with locations in Weissach, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Wolfsburg, Leipzig (all Germany), Shanghai (China), Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and Nardò (Italy). Porsche Engineering Group GmbH is a 100% subsidiary company of the sports car manufacturer Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart.

30.05.2017

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