On June 7, our own R.E.S.T. autonomous team went to the Cobo Hall to compete in a statewide event with members from large automotive and engineering companies. These companies include Square One, the company that runs the previous competitions, General Motors (GM), the P3 Group (P3), a group of skilled engineers, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA). The team was invited to take part in this competition during their previous competition at University of Michigan in May.

“The event was to showcase students learning in autonomous and connected vehicles to industry professionals at the ITSA conference,” R.E.S.T. sponsor Bob Smitka said.

The team took home a second place trophy for their performance in the events, as well as a Professional’s Pick Award. The Professional’s Pick Award was awarded to the team who the professionals believed networked and communicated most efficiently, as well as who’s vehicle showed the most promise.

“We changed our car to handle the powerful motos we were using to get more accurate speed and control of the car, and we added safety features such as a kill switch in case something went wrong,” junior and team member Jason Sedluk said.

This event is the last event R.E.S.T. will be participating in for the year, but the team is preparing for the events coming up in the fall and spring of next year.