The Indy Autonomous Challenge will bring together collegiate teams worldwide to run autonomous race cars around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s (IMS) famed 2.5-mile oval.

The challenge, set for October 21-23, will feature a series of events with teams addressing topics such as artificial intelligence, sensors, data science, and more. Events include themed "hackathons," research papers, simulation races, and more.

Teams are made up of students and faculty and are tasked with writing business plans and raise funds for their individual teams. Nearly 30 entities are currently set to compete, with several actively seeking collaborations from industry members.

One team includes Purdue Motorsports, which partnered with the US Military Academy at West Point to form Black & Gold Autonomous Racing. 

“They, as well as all the other teams, are working on issues of how does an autonomous race car pass another race car, speed up, slow down if there is a caution or stop if a race is red-flagged, or even pull into the pits and exit safely to get back onto the track,” said Danny White, manager of Purdue Motorsports and managing director of the evGrand Prix. “These are really complicated tasks that we take for granted.”

For more information, visit indyautonomouschallenge.com.