Safety First! Competition 2024: Celebrating Innovation in Vehicle Safety & Security

We’re thrilled to announce the successful completion of the Safety First! competition in 2024. With a total of five teams and 12 students showcasing their innovative ideas, the event highlighted crucial advancements in vehicle safety.

Out of the initial five teams, four advanced to the finals, demonstrating exceptional progress from ideation to implementation. Here’s a glimpse of the remarkable projects presented by the podium finalists:

  1. DBN-Sense: Introduced a hidden Markov model for predicting accident risk across various scenarios.
  2. The Crash Test Dummies: Developed a camera-based solution to mitigate wildlife-related traffic accidents.
  3. Connectivity Visionaries: Established an innovative test environment comparing DSRC and cellular technology-based applications to enhance the safety of vulnerable road users.

After rigorous evaluation, the final rankings were unveiled:

  • 1st Place: DBN-Sense
  • 2nd Place: The Crash Test Dummies
  • 3rd Place: Connectivity Visionaries

Congratulations to all the finalists for their outstanding contributions to advancing vehicle safety!

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our jury members from our industrial partners:

 

Péter Simányi, Jaguar Land Rover

Réka Enikő Jenei, Bosch

Thank you for your valuable work and contribution to the success of the competition!

European Defense Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) Hackathon calls for innovative solutions to enhance Europe’s security

In a bid to bolster Europe’s defense and security, Design Terminal has announced the EUDIS Hackathon. This initiative is part of the European Defence Fund and aims to revitalize the industry with innovative solutions. Targeting entrepreneurial-minded youth, the hackathon seeks solutions to three pre-defined challenges.

The hybrid-format hackathon will focus on digital and data-driven solutions to strengthen Europe’s defense capabilities. Participating teams are tasked with developing innovative proposals to address one of three predetermined challenges: maritime infrastructure protection, development of combat support systems, and cybersecurity.

If you have novel ideas or are eager to work out solutions to the industry’s challenges, seize the opportunity to participate in the EUDIS Hackathon scheduled for June 1st-2nd. Engage in a national-level competition and win a spot in the EU-level finals!

Why Apply?

  • Participation in workshops to build business skills
  • The winning team advances to an EU-level pitch competition
  • Access to valuable networking opportunities with mentors and key industry players
  • Chance to win a cash prize of 500,000 HUF

The deadline for applications is May 19th. For further information, visit https://new.ultrahack.org/hackathons/eudis-hackathon-2024-hungary

Jaguar Land Rover Collaborates with Budapest University of Technology and Economics on Engineer Training and Research

During the BME X Jaguar Land Rover TechDay event, the Rector and Chancellor of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) signed a collaboration agreement with the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover.

“At BME, research directions are guided by the real needs of our industrial partners. It’s important and honorable that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has become our strategic partner in research and development,” said Tibor Czigány, the Rector of BME. He added, “Today’s collaboration agreement sets an example as it involves several of our faculties. Alongside the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics will also contribute to this partnership initiated five years ago. Given JLR’s global reputation, our students and staff stand to gain immensely from this collaboration.”

Zsolt Szalay, the Head of the Department of Automotive Technologies at BME, stated, “Due to BME’s size, traditions, and competencies, it is well-suited to provide tailored, targeted, and flexible training programs for JLR, allowing us to continually update and expand the knowledge of the company’s employees. We consider these training programs as a service, and while we provide, we also learn a great deal. Our goal is to offer outstanding and beneficial training courses for JLR engineers. The significance of this collaboration is heightened by the fact that the company is one of the five original equipment manufacturers present in Hungary.”

Szalay Zsolt, tanszékvezető

The collaboration between the Department of Vehicle Technology at BME and Jaguar Land Rover Hungary Kft. (JLR) dates back nearly five years. “The excellent professional knowledge of engineers trained at BME is well-known. As a former student of this university myself, I have experienced firsthand the quality education it provides and the dedication it demands from its students,” emphasized Ákos Garaba, CEO of JLR Hungary. “We have long-term plans with our employees, so it’s important for us to continuously provide high-quality training locally, and BME is the perfect partner for this. They listen to what competencies need to be taught and understand our needs in terms of further education for engineers. The CEO emphasized, “I consider it very important that our engineers can receive “tailor-made” training,” and added: “The Faculty of Transport Engineering and Vehicle Engineering of BME has also launched the English-language autonomous vehicle engineer course, which covers all the technical fields necessary for the creation of future transport. Automotive cyber security (automotive cyber security) and functional safety (functional safety) are also important areas of training, with the department’s programmes offering courses tailored to our needs.” – stressed Ákos Garaba.

Garaba Ákos, a Jaguar Land Rover Magyarország ügyvezetője

The collaboration between JLR Hungary and BME initially involves three faculties but will expand continuously. The area related to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering covers injection molding, tooling, and product optimization. The collaboration related to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics focuses on artificial intelligence in automotive design. Collaboration with the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering will begin on automotive functional safety and cybersecurity. Two engineers from JLR have already started their doctoral research at BME. Currently, the emphasis is on refining the framework for the next phase of partnership. Their goal is multi-level collaboration: from internships to diploma programs, to study competitions. Furthermore, exploring common research areas and jointly applying for research and development projects will also receive significant emphasis in the future.

At the event held at the J Building of BME and its surroundings on May 14, attendees had the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in vehicle engineering. Jaguar Land Rover development engineers delivered exciting presentations on vehicle testing, acoustic modeling, function development, and injection molding. Attendees also had the chance to explore the newest vehicles in the parking lot.

Our PhD student presented at the IEEE MOST 2024 conference in Texas

Our PhD student presented at the IEEE MOST 2024 conference in Texas 

We’re thrilled to share that our PhD student, Márton Cserni, showcased our groundbreaking research at the IEEE MOST 2024 conference in Dallas, TX.

He presented our team’s latest work on cloud-based low-level control, demonstrating our ability to control a real-sized “dumb” vehicle directly from the cloud.

Despite lacking onboard sensors or intelligence, the test car successfully followed predefined trajectories, solely relying on external localization and low-level control signals from the cloud. This breakthrough technology not only enables connected vehicles to depend entirely on smart infrastructure for control but also offers significant potential for automating ADAS testing.

Another milestone reached in this year’s Safety First! competition!

The detailed documentation of safety solutions developed by teams has been submitted for the second edition of the Safety First! vehicle safety & security technology innovation competition! The entries were evaluated by leading experts from industrial partners, university lecturers, and researchers. The final of the competition will take place on May 17th.

We cheer for the advancing teams! Go DBN-Sense, SafeTraverse, Connectivity Visionaries, The Crash Test Dummies, and Binary Asymmetry!

We thank Robert Bosch Kft. and Jaguar Land Rover Hungary Kft. for their support, contributing to the organization of the competition!”