The ADAS workshop that took place at NXP in Austin, Texas last week flew by as the students learned about the NXP hardware they are using in their vehicles’ ADAS systems this year.
The workshop kicked off with a warm welcome from Bob Conrad, NXP Senior Vice President and General Manager, Automotive Microcontrollers and Microprocessors.
NXP trainers, Ioseph Martinez and Brent Wylie, then dove into a training introduction and began hands-on activities with teams. These NXP experts led 2 days of in-depth training sessions, including a CAN Hands-on Activity and a session on AggCF Theory.
During the workshop, students also had the opportunity to take a NXP window tour of the first 200mm silicon wafer production facility which started in 1991. The factory runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and produces integrated circuits for RF amplifiers in cellular base stations, night vision applications, and numerous automotive applications such as sensors for the safety systems, lighting control, and start-stop alternators.
The students are now back at their respective universities to begin implementing what they’ve learned. Hear about the workshop from some of the students and trainers in their own words:
- Mohammad Alattas, California State University – Los Angeles
“The ADAS workshop has been a terrific experience. The CAN, MATLAB, and Detection examples were very beneficial training courses that we were able to participate in. During this training, I was able to learn how to set up the camera on my NXP S32 circuit board in order to detect lanes and vehicles on the road.”
- Joshua Jacob, Georgia Tech
“Our team has been challenged with getting the process image to display correctly on our S32 board. During the workshop, we were able to hear a more in-depth explanation of the source code during one of the presentations and we were able to apply that to our own board and correct our mistakes. Having direct access to experienced trainers in the field and go through detailed demos has been incredibly beneficial to our team so we can have more guidance to work on our deliverables for the competition.”
- Levi Bisonn, University of Washington
“I think that collaborating with people from other teams that have different perspectives is a positive environment to be in. People from different disciplines tend to have different approaches, even for simple problems, which definitely helps generate the best solution for a problem. It’s a great opportunity to connect with other teams so we are able to help each other and continue to overcome obstacles together.”
- Brent Wylie, ADAS Applications Engineer, NXP
“I am a recent graduate and began working with NXP in January 2016. As a trainer, it is beneficial for me to work with the EcoCAR 3 students because I was in their shoes only a few years ago. As an applications engineer, it is important for our customers to understand how to use our device and products. We are able to give the students the rare opportunity to have the students start from scratch in order to understand how a product works. Teams are able to gain more of an understanding of the production process and gain experience with industry quality hardware before entering the workforce.”
Take a peek inside the workshop below:
Thank you to NXP for hosting such a terrific workshop! You can view all of the photos from the event here!
