Objective: To challenge students to think creatively as a team about the evolving technologies of vehicle electronic controls, sensors, computer science, robotics and system integration throughout the design, fabrication and field testing of autonomous intelligent mobile robots.

This competition has been highly praised by participating faculty advisors as an excellent multi-disciplinary design experience for student teams, and a number of engineering schools give credit in senior design courses for student participation. It is multidisciplinary, theory-based, hands-on, team implemented, outcome assessed, and based on product realization. IGVC encompasses the very latest technologies impacting industrial development and taps subjects of high interest to students.

Design and construction of an Intelligent Vehicle fits well in a two semester senior year design capstone course, or an extracurricular activity earning design credit. The deadline of an end-of-term competition is a real-world constraint that includes the excitement of potential winning recognition and financial gain. Students at all levels of undergraduate and graduate education can contribute to the team effort, and those at the lower levels benefit greatly from the experience and mentoring of those at higher levels. Team organization and leadership are practiced, and there are even roles for team members from business and engineering management, language and graphic arts, and public relations. Students solicit and interact with industrial sponsors who provide component hardware and advice, and in that way get an inside view of industrial design and opportunities for employment.