A 40 meter long scalextric that serves as a test track and a laboratory to test different technologies. This is the project that 17 students from different branches of engineering, alongside with five lecturers, have carried out and that has been awarded the second prize in the Xplore 2015 international contest, in which 127 universities from all parts of the world have participated.  

 

The main goal of the Xplore team of the University of Oviedo was to create a low cost infrastructure that allowed them to apply different technologies in their design and that was useful at the same time to develop and test new projects and research works. The great rally-slot track perfectly fulfills all those objectives. "It is a unique and very flexible educational structure, as it is not only a challenge as regards its design and construction, but it will also serve as a tool for other students to test new works and make advances", as Felipe Mateos explains, who is one of the five lecturers of the field of Systems and Automation Engineering that coordinates the  Xplore team.

 

Programming drones for rescue operations, algorithms to control speed, installation of machine vision cameras, robotics or RFID technology to identify vehicles are some of the fields in which the students have jointly worked in order to include all technologies to the great scalextric. Master and undergraduate students are developing their final projects taking into account projects that are tested in this track, as if it was one more laboratory of the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Gijón. 

 

The Campus of International Excellence has joined efforts to help the Xplore team of the University of Oviedo go to the finals of the Xplore 2015 contest in the German city of Bad-Pyrmont. Only 30 projects were selected as finalists among the 127 universities that took part in the contest, held worldwide by the Phoenix Contact multinational company.