Signal Processing - January 2017 - 31

Signal Processing Education
via Hands-onand Design Projects

Qing Zhuo, Yanpin Ren, Yongheng Jiang,
and Changshui Zhang

Hands-On Learning Through Racing
Signal processing and engineering education
through the China National Collegiate Intelligent Model Car Competition

T

main image ©istockphoto.com/skynesher; screen image ©istockphoto.com/alengo

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2016.2619985
Date of publication: 11 January 2017

1053-5888/17©2017IEEE

he Intelligent Model Car Competition (IMCC) of
China is an annual collegiate contest where student
teams design, build, and race a model car around a
track, and the fastest car that completes the track
without failure wins [1]. The IMCC is in collaboration with
the global NXP Cup Challenge, which was formerly
known as the Freescale Cup Challenge until the acquisition
of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. by NXP Semiconductors
[2]. Creating this smart, autonomous car requires students
to develop the hardware and software of motor control to
propel and steer their model cars. It provides a collaborative, competitive, and hands-on way for students to learn
about and make a synergistic use of theories and techniques from undergraduate engineering studies, such as
sensing and control, circuit design and implementation,
and embedded system and software programming. The
first competition, formerly known as the Smart Car Race,
began in 2003 in South Korea with 80 student teams. Since
then, the NXP Cup has expanded to China, India, Malaysia, Latin America, North America, and Europe, engaging
hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of students a
year [2], [3].
China started its nationwide college-level smart car race
in 2006. It has undergone a rapid growth since then and
has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. The challenges
and ingenuity posed by this competition has attracted an
increasing number of students year by year. As shown in
Figure 1, participation has risen from about 112 teams of
57 colleges in 2006 to over 2,000 teams of more than 400
colleges in recent years. For the past five years, more than
30,000 students have attended the contest annually; and so
far this decade-long race has engaged more than 150,000
students in total, providing them a valuable hands-on educational experience of engineering.
As members of the organizing committee of the IMCC, in
this article we provide an overview and highlights of the competition tasks and rules, the role that signal processing plays, and
the curricula that is built on the competition.

IEEE Signal Processing Magazine

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January 2017

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31


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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signal Processing - January 2017

Signal Processing - January 2017 - Cover1
Signal Processing - January 2017 - Cover2
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 1
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 2
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 3
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 4
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 5
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 6
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 7
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 8
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 9
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 10
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 11
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 12
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 13
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 14
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 15
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 16
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 17
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 18
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 19
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 20
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 21
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 22
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 23
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 24
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 25
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 26
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 27
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 28
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 29
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 30
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 31
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 32
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 33
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 34
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 35
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 36
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 37
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 38
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 39
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 40
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 41
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 42
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 43
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 44
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 45
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 46
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 47
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 48
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 49
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 50
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 51
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 52
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 53
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 54
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 55
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 56
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 57
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 58
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 59
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 60
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 61
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 62
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 63
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 64
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 65
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 66
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 67
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 68
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 69
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 70
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 71
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 72
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 73
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 74
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 75
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 76
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 77
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 78
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 79
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 80
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 81
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 82
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 83
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 84
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 85
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 86
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 87
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 88
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 89
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 90
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 91
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 92
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 93
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 94
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 95
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 96
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 97
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 98
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 99
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 100
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 101
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 102
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 103
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 104
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 105
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 106
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 107
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 108
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 109
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 110
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 111
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 112
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 113
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 114
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 115
Signal Processing - January 2017 - 116
Signal Processing - January 2017 - Cover3
Signal Processing - January 2017 - Cover4
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