Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) RACECAR Remote/Travel Team Participation in 2021

Due to safety concerns and travel restrictions due to COVID-19, we will not have teams traveling in 2021.

Remote Teams will be able to participate virtually in the final event and we are planning on supporting participation for international teams and hope you should reach out to us for more information.

Please email bwsi-admin@mit.edu to confirm your team's involvement.

Thank you.

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Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) RACECAR Remote/Travel Team Participation

Guidelines and Recommendations

Four remote teams, including three from Mexico and one from Canada, completed the BWSI 2018 RACECAR program and one from Nauset Massachusetts completed the BWSI 2019 Unmanned Air System – Synthetic Aperture Radar program. The teams were able to follow the same curriculum as the MIT class, travel to Cambridge, and successfully participate as peers in the final challenge events at MIT. On the basis of their experiences, we have formulated guidelines and recommendations for teams who might be interested in participating remotely.  This option may be beneficial to international schools; and to schools contemplating adopting or offering the program in their own curriculum, increasing the number of opportunities for their students to participate in the program.  We assume a certain level of familiarity with the overall program and curriculum in particular, in the descriptions below. It may also be helpful to review the BWSI Program Brochure and Admission Procedures materials for additional background and context.

Overview

Your students can be prepared to participate in the BWSI course by completing the prerequisite online content we provide and require of all prospective applicants. When the summer program begins, students are able to follow along with the summer program “live” by using the same content we teach in our classroom. For the RACECAR course the final Grand Prix track layout and design of special features intended to technically challenge and demonstrate the student teams’ skills is revealed at the start of the fourth week of the RACECAR course. The entire fourth week is a “build week” during which the teams design, build, integrate, and test their systems and component implementations. We have instructors, mentors, and coaches available to support teams throughout the process by answering and asking questions, observing team interactions, and offering helpful tips (without providing solutions). Remote teams are also welcome to attend during this week to build their implementation, interact with other students, observe other teams, and benefit from our support. All teams participate in the weekend Final Challenge Demonstration events.

Online Preparation

New and updated content is made available during January in our online course that all prospective students are required to complete for admission or participation in the summer program.  The course is organized into topical modules that cover technical subjects of interest and then develop skills needed to work on the BWSI programs.  The course is intended to ensure all students arrive with a common baseline set of skills and exposure to technical topics that we can build upon in the summer program.

The online content enables students to participate at a higher level during the summer program.  The courses are intense, college-level curriculum and the online courses are the pre-requisite for a successful 4 week program. For the RACECAR course instructions are provided to install, operate, and program a model RACECAR in a simulated environment using the same tools and interfaces as the physical vehicle.  We include sensor simulations and model “worlds” of previous BWSI final challenge tracks and others that have been used in MIT courses.

Prior course content, much of which will be reused remains available for access by anyone with registered credentials at http://bwsix.mit.edu/.  We work through single designated points of contact at each school to set up and verify access to this site for local instructors and individual students.  When at MIT, the team mentor and teaching assistants are expected to be with their team at all time.

Summer Program Curriculum

Once the summer program begins, we release the in-class content as it is delivered in the classroom, as appropriate (YouTube videos, Zoom or other method).

It is essential that remote/travel teams have local instructional and mentoring support for the preliminary on-line preparation, and hardware/software build/installation process, especially during the summer program itself. We recommend that prospective instructors and mentors go through the online course themselves and/or are otherwise prepared to support their students in understanding the content. Some schools have established relationships with MIT or a local university with departments that have students who may be recruited for internships as effective in-class or afterschool mentors for their teams.

Build Week and Final Event Participation

BWSI staff will be communicating with mentor on logistics and details for the final event.  Teams should be prepared to share all material, code, videos and presentations, on the Thursday prior to the Sunday final event.

Guidelines and Requirements

Mini-RACECAR (ie RACECAR-MN) team guidelines are being developed, but will follow same model as described for BWSI courses, like RACECAR.  There isn't an online course for the mini-RACECAR course, the course itself provides the introductory material.  Advanced Mini-RACECAR courses will require demonstration or evidence of prior course completion.

These requirements are intended to ensure that all teams have the same working hardware configuration, software architecture with required capabilities, and level of preparedness needed to succeed in the build week and Final Challenge event.

Your student team(s) must build or buy a mini-RACECAR that matches specifications of the summer program vehicle.  Those specifications (bill of materials, laser cutting files, and assembly guide) are publicly available and for the mini-RACECAR  the cost is ~ $700.  Assembly time varies with experience but is typically on the order of 8 hours for someone with basic mechanical and soldering skills using the guide we provide.

The proper operation of the vehicle must be demonstrated using the baseline software provided for the summer program before arriving at MIT. We can only provide very limited diagnostic and repair support for vehicles.  We recommend teams bring a selected set of spare parts and a tool kit with them that reflects on their past experience building, operating, and maintaining their own mini-RACECAR.

Logistics (for in-person program only)

Travel Teams organizers must arrange housing for your students, we will provide lunches for the whole program, but the Travel Team organizers are responsible for remaining costs.  Area hotels are available and home stay options may be possible if family relatives or sponsors live in the local area.  We do not have the resources to help finding housing or transportation required to attend the program for remote/travel teams.

For international teams from institutions who participate in the MIT MISTI program, you may already have a MISTI program point of contact who could help with logistics and possibly recruit mentors from the MIT community to support your teams.

We do not arrange for visas required for travel, but can supply or sign documentation that explains the purpose for the trip.