30 teams from all over Europe - a total of around 150 students and their 25 professors - took part in the competition organized by Renesas Electronics Europe. The teams had to develop a model racing car that uses sensors to detect the road surface and evaluates the data with the help of an RX microcontroller from Renesas.

In the final, this car had to complete a 67-meter lap five times. The fastest car from the "Fastech" team from the University of Craiova in Romania completed the distance in 3:21 minutes. The "Rising Dragon" team from the Harz University of Applied Sciences came in second, just a few seconds behind (3:30 minutes). The "Omega" team from the West Coast University of Applied Sciences came third with a time of 3:48 minutes. The winners were delighted to receive attractive prizes, including an Apple Watch, Fitbits and free-floating speakers for all team members.

Brand new: the Innovation Award

For the first time, Renesas presented an Innovation Award to the team that came up with the most creative and forward-looking improvements for the MCU-based model cars. The criteria were design, construction, environmental compatibility and performance.

The winner of the first Innovation Award of the Renesas MCU Car Rally 2017 is Team Omega from the West Coast University of Applied Sciences. The team had developed a torque vector control system with separate power control for each wheel of the race car. With additional Bluetooth-based telemetry and a configuration port, the team was able to record parameters and develop datasets more quickly. No wonder Prof. Detlef Jensen from the West Coast University of Applied Sciences - the team's tutor - was named "Professor of the Year 2016" for his outstanding support of his students.

The second prize in the Innovation Award went to the Home1 team from Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, who developed a completely new MCU car from scratch and named it "Brutus".

The three-member jury was also impressed by the fuzzy car developed by the "LART 1" team from the University of Wuppertal, which took third place. The winning team received virtual reality headsets and the Synergy Starter Kits went to all participants.