Competing teams of Chinese engineering students displayed and raced smart model cars at the third annual Freescale Cup University Smart Car Racing Contest at Northwestern University of Sheyang, China. Smart cars are designedto operate autonomously and identify their route through each race course. Team scores are determined by how fast each race car completes a course. More than 600 teams from 270 Chinese universities competed, with final race narrowed to 104.
The race culminated months of desin and asembly of smart cars, built using Freescale Semiconductors's S12 microcontroller (MCU) technology - 16-bit MCU architecture used in the automotive market. Designers had to integrate road sensors, design model car within two categories - camera and optical electronics. Cars competing in the camera group used lens imaging for navigation, while the optical-electronics group used optical communciation.
In the camera competition, Team Leopard from Northeastern University in Sheyang took first place with a time of 18.388 sec. Team Shou An No. 1 from the University of Science and Technology Wuhan finished first in the optical-electronics competition with a time of 24.597 sec.
The 2009 event will be coordinated with university professors from China, Korea, India and Malaysia.
Interesting Facts
Here are some facts now making the e-mail rounds.
* Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the U.S. Treasury.
* Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
* Coca-Cola was originally green.
* It is impossible to lick your elbow.
* The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
* The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...)
* The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
* Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
* The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
* Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great leader from history:
Spades – King David
Hearts – Charlemagne
Clubs –Alexander, the Great air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
* Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
Diamonds – Julius Caesar
* If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
* Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
* Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession
* 111,111,111 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321