Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team places fourth in autonomous driving competition

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The  Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team (AVT) took home multiple wins, including fourth place overall, in its fourth year of the AutoDrive Challenge II, which took place June 1-7 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Sponsored by SAE International and General Motors, the competition tasks student teams with developing and testing a fully autonomous passenger vehicle on a controlled urban driving course.   

“Overall, I am simply blown away by the hard work and dedication of our team members,” said AVT team lead Alexandria Rhoads, a rising senior majoring in aerospace engineering. “We have so many talented students working on not only furthering our technological capabilities but enhancing our project planning and testing, and it is because of these students that we are able to rise to the challenges put forth by AutoDrive Challenge II. I am impressed by our stellar overall finish this year, and I can't wait to see the team excel next year!” 

Teams are ranked on their performance in static events, such as reports and presentations, and dynamic events, such as navigating their vehicle through a test track. Penn State AVT received the following recognitions this year: 

•  Overall, fourth place  
• Static Events, sixth place  
• Dynamic Events, third place  
• Concept Design Report and Software Requirements Specifications, third place 
• Concept Design Event, first place 
• Project Management, second place (tie)   
• Design Your Own Challenge, second place  
• Localization Challenge, first place (tie) 

Rhoads said that the team’s creative problem-solving was what allowed them to best other teams in the concept design event and the localization challenge, where their vehicle was tasked with autonomously navigating through areas with limited GPS reception, causing it to need other tools to understand its position on the road. 

“We thought outside of the box to rise to the challenges, and this alternative thinking allowed us to surpass our competitors,” Rhoads said. “We are proud of the technical success demonstrated by our vehicle throughout the competition.” 

In addition to Rhoads, this year’s competition team consisted of mechanical engineering majors Duncan Andrews, Nicholas Carosi, Lodovico De Ponti, Logan Dulaney, Evan Jiang, Justin Kerr and Yifan Shi; computer science majors Anh Phan, Joseph Baker, Nicholas Braun, Elijah Kibler and Lauren Myers; data science major Carson Pedaci; electrical engineering major Madison Comstock; and computer engineering majors Jenicy Strong, Shiding Xu and Muhammad Irfan Si.  

The  Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute provided the team access to its automotive test track, garage space and team meeting areas throughout the year, while the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science provided financial assistance to the team.   

Seeking members

The AVT is recruiting new members for the 2025-26 academic year. Interested graduate and undergraduate engineering students of all majors can meet student leaders at the fall involvement fair, which will take place from noon to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 2, on the HUB Robeson Center Lawn, or attend the club’s new member meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 258 Willard Building. Students can also join the new member group chat on GroupMe.