From February 14-16, EcoCAR Mobility Challenge teams, organizers, and sponsors attended the Year One Winter Workshop! The workshop took place at the NXP Semiconductors headquarters in Austin TX. The workshop kicked off with a warm welcome from Ron Martino, VP & GM of the i.MX Applications Processor Product; NXP, Jacob Krakauer, Automated Driving Strategic Marketing Engineer; Intel, Ann Schlenker, Director, Center for Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory; and Kristen Wahl, AVTC Director, Argonne National Laboratory.
Nearly 150 EcoCAR students received extensive training in donated software and components from competition-level sponsors including General Motors, MathWorks, NXP, Intel, Bosch, dSPACE, Siemens, and AAM. Some of the training sessions included Intel TANK and Mobileye Training, dSPACE MABx Training, NX FEA Training, just to name a few.
Teams also had the opportunity to highlight their talents at the Sponsor Social Networking and Recruiting Event. Students spent part of the evening mingling with various competition-level sponsors at booths hosted by recruiters from each organization. The sponsors’ exhibits allowed students to learn more about those organizations and network with industry leaders, and they also provided an outlet for sponsors to hear more about the status of the teams.
The Communications Managers took part in EcoCAR Education Day, visiting a local high school class in Austin, Texas. The teams presented to three classes of students who were learning about engineering and CAD, and many of whom were on Robotics teams at the school. EcoCAR presented many similarities to the high school classes, and the CMs talked about how EcoCAR teams are composed of a variety of different majors who all have unique roles to play in their success. The CMs weren’t the only ones to share, as the high schoolers demonstrated some of the robots they are building. CMs and the high school students also talked about choosing a major, the types of universities they were looking for, and how getting involved in a competition like EcoCAR in college can lead to jobs after graduation.
The workshop concluded with an evening event hosted by NXP at the Cedar Street Courtyard in downtown Austin. All EcoCAR attendees were able to enjoy some delicious Austin BBQ and listen to 80’s cover songs by the Spazmatics.
Check out some highlights of the Winter Workshop below:
Thank you to all who made the EcoCAR Winter Workshop a success! Click HERE to view all photos from the EcoCAR Winter Workshop!
