Engineering Students Earn Global Recognition for Technical Excellence at BFMC Finals, Romania

As the global mobility sector rapidly advances towards intelligent transportation systems, engineering students are increasingly required to integrate expertise across software, electronics, and mechanical design to solve complex real-world challenges. Illustrating this capability on an international platform, Team OdyssiX, a group of three undergraduate students from Ahmedabad University, advanced to the global finals of the Bosch Future Mobility Challenge (BFMC) held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, representing both the University and India alongside top engineering teams from around the world.

The team’s achievement marks a significant achievement for the University and continues Ahmedabad University’s growing presence in international competitions, following Team Akatsuki's accomplishment in 2022. Competing in a highly demanding challenge focused on autonomous mobility systems, Team OdyssiX showed strong interdisciplinary collaboration and technical expertise across software, mechanical systems, and electrical hardware integration. In addition to reaching the global finals, the team received the “Most Popular Team” award after securing nearly 9,000 votes through a worldwide public voting campaign organised as part of the competition.

Team OdyssiX comprised students Samarth Bankar (BTech in Computer Science and Engineering), Yash Shah (BTech in Mechanical Engineering), and Diyan Patel (BTech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering). The team was mentored by Professor Amol Gedam, Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, along with former Ahmedabad University faculty member Maryam Kaveshgar.

BFMC is an international competition that invites students to engineer algorithms for autonomous driving and connectivity. Working with 1/10 scale vehicles provided by Bosch, teams must develop solutions for lane keeping, intersection navigation, traffic sign detection, and dynamic path planning. The vehicles then navigate a designated environment simulating a complex, miniature smart city. The project requires months of intense development.

For Team OdyssiX, the successful integration of Samarth’s complex vision algorithms, Yash’s precision vehicle dynamics, and Diyan’s low-level embedded architecture provided the technical foundation needed to compete alongside leading universities worldwide. The team worked extensively on sensor calibration, algorithm optimisation, and complete electrical mapping.

At the finals, they put their autonomous vehicle to the ultimate test against dozens of international teams, showcasing Indian innovation and engineering execution on a global platform. Their journey to the global finals reflected not only technical excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration, but also the growing capability of young Indian engineers to address emerging challenges in autonomous mobility systems.