The university’s team of William Zon Kok Weng, Ling Ting Yang and Carmella Sim Lee Yoong beat 36 teams from the public and private institutions of higher learning in the country to lift the coveted title and take home the cash prize of RM3000.
The competition was held at the Multimedia University in Cyberjaya.
Winning the national championship qualifies the team for the Global Freescale Cup Challenge which will be held in Harbin in China from 22 to 24 August.
“We are thrilled to have won and it is truly an honour to represent the country at this prestigious competition. We will certainly do our best at the tougher tournament in China,” said team advisor Dr Hudyjaya Siswoyo Jo.
“Of course, we also look at the experience and knowledge the students will gain from this exposure,” said the engineering lecturer, adding that the competition requires students to demonstrate their knowledge in robotics and mechatronics engineering.
This is the second year in a row that Swinburne Sarawak has won the Freescale Cup. Last year, the university took first and second place.
“Winning this year’s Freescale Cup again shows that we are continuously improving. More importantly, it indicates that we are arming our students with the right engineering skills and knowledge,” Hudyjaya said.
University Malaysia Sabah was first runner-up while Monash University Sunway Campus took the second runner-up title.
The Freescale Cup is a global competition where student teams build, program, and race a model car around a track for speed. The fastest car to complete the track without derailing, wins.
The development of the race car requires a strong knowledge in robotics and mechatronics engineering which involves mechanical and electronic design as well as image processing and embedded system implementation.
Freescale is a US manufacturer of microcontrollers, microprocessors and semiconductors, specializing in smart vehicle control system. The competition is organized to promote the application of advanced embedded system in automobile control.