The students from the Faculty of Engineering who participated in the Bosch Future Mobility Challenge (BFMC), an international autonomous vehicle competition held in Romania from May 14 to 20, 2024, are a testament to the power of Argentine effort, passion, and ingenuity. With very little money invested, but with a strong desire to compete, the Austral team reached the final stages and traveled to Napoca, Romania, to compete alongside the best in the world.
Team Austral , composed of Agustín Battaglia, Tomás Becerra, Mateo Whitechurch, Marcos Medina (Industrial Engineering), and Ricardo López Bonaguro and Alejo Demitropulos (Computer Engineering), was selected from over 180 universities worldwide to place among the top 20 teams—and they were the only team from Latin America to make it that far! The autonomous car with which they represented Argentina took the form of the iconic Torino 380 W , evoking the glory of the historic "Argentine Mission" at the 84 Hours of Nürburgring, Germany, more than half a century ago! Such was the impact they achieved with the iconic model that the competition organizers requested the preservation of the Argentine Torino's body as a treasure of this prestigious event. As if that weren't enough, the Argentine team returned home with two awards: the Audience Award and the Marketing Award, recognizing the public's support and the team's strong social media presence.
Thanks to the support of our sponsors: Grupo Moura, RUS, Pan American Energy, and Bosch Argentina, this achievement has been possible. Their commitment to education and innovation has allowed us to reach new horizons and showcase the talent of our students on the international stage.
“This experience helped me a lot to interact with people from cultures completely different from our own, and none of them had the same native language, so we all communicated in English. I loved being able to share meals, hobbies, and the competition with these students,” says Tomás.
Marcos's gaze reveals the enriching experience of participating in such a high-level competition: “This experience opens your eyes in two ways: it makes you look outward to understand the state of the world, but also inward. To understand how Argentina and Austral stand in relation to the rest of the world. And it's clear we're up to the challenge: Argentine engineers are very well prepared compared to what's presented globally.” Ricardo shares this same perception: “These past few days I've realized that even though we're in different countries, far apart from each other, deep down we're all very similar when it comes to thinking, being, and tackling a problem.”
Mateo shares his pride in reaching the semi-finals of the competition: “It was a very positive and rewarding experience to know that we are competing with the best and they are like us. We should be proud to be Argentinian and to have achieved this with so little . ”
When the boys are asked if they would be willing to participate in another high-level international competition, none of them hesitate: “I think it’s an experience everyone should have. It opens your mind to a new world and helps you learn to express yourself in other languages and solve problems in real time and against the clock ,” Tomás shares. Mateo adds, “I’d like to repeat the experience sometime, and if it’s with this same team, even better. We really had great synergy.”
There are no magic potions behind success other than the effort, passion, and teamwork demonstrated by the students in the competition. Their success inspires new generations to pursue their dreams and strive to achieve their goals, encouraging more students to participate in this event. Congratulations to the students on this great achievement!
The BFMC is an annual competition that brings together student teams from around the world to develop connectivity and autonomous driving algorithms for 1/10 scale vehicles provided by Bosch. The competition takes place on a track that simulates a miniature smart city, where the vehicles must navigate autonomously, respecting traffic rules and avoiding obstacles.
The team Universidad Austral They invested only 18 euros in their vehicle, while the average investment for the other teams was 600 euros. The students worked for months to develop and improve their vehicle, using recycled parts and limited resources. Their success demonstrates that it is possible to compete at the highest level with ingenuity, creativity, and hard work.
