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Way to go!
PSI Race is an event that happens every year,
this is its 5th year,
and it consist in designing and building a small car
capable of tracking an enclosed line, a trajectory
in the shortest possible time.
This project is aimed at the students at the 3rd year of the Electronic Systems Course.
Students at the 3rd year of the Electronic Systems Course
are capable of analyzing digital and analog circuits,
which are the subjects they are studying in theoretical classes,
so the idea is that they apply the knowledge they acquired in the classes
on their cars so they will perform as well as possible.
Naturally, in order to students to apply as much of their knowledge as possible,
we restrict the use of micro-controllers and microprocessors, which they will work with later,
and thus they have an opportunity to apply the knowledge they have acquired so far,
it's a way of reinforcing the knowledge acquired to that point.
Students must switch on their cars
on the track
and let them go without any human interference;
each car must track the line and cross an arrival line;
an electronic chronometer will tell each car's time.
Each competitor is entitled to three attempts
and the four fastest competitors will be entitled
to two more attempts in a second round.
The fastest of the five attempts,
three in the first round and two in the second,
will determine the champions. The shortest time makes the champions.
To our surprise, we were approached by this company, Freescale,
which has a special circuit that they would like to publicize
holding a competition very much like PSI Race.
This is the 5th consecutive year that we hold this competition;
this company considered that this competition is interesting and can generate good results,
so they are planning a race on the national level,
which will involve USP's Polytechnic School and other Brazilian universities.
They will provide a basic kit to each competitor
on the hope that each competitor will use it in his or her project as much as possible.
This is expected to happen next year,
so this year's three fastest competitors will be our candidates to this project next year,
and the champions on the national level will compete in an international race the following year.
So, the tendency from next year on will be to prepare the cars
so they meet the requirements of the national competition first
and later the requirements of the international competitions.