Simulink Student Challenge Winners
MathWorks announces the winners of the 2025 Simulink Student Challenge. Congratulations and thanks to all the students who entered.
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1st Place
Digital Engineering Framework for Off-Road Autonomous Vehicles
Clemson University, United States – Tanmay Samak
The Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) team proposes a digital engineering framework to address the challenges in off-road autonomous vehicle design and validation that arise from high test parameters and algorithmic variants. This tool combines AutoDrive physical simulation with control software implemented in Simulink, coupled with a deep learning object detection model to enable perception-enhanced control. The framework also incorporates an automated validation workflow combining requirements editor, variant manager and test managers to ensure the robustness of the algorithm. The video gives a high-level introduction to various functionalities of the tool and showcases a real-world application to demonstrate the capability and efficiency of the proposed framework.
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2nd Place
Hardware & Driver-in-the-Loop
Politecnico di Milano, Italy – Tommaso Toppio
This team secured first place in the Simulink Student Challenge 2024. Building on this work, they extended the project this year by integrating hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation using a Speedgoat real-time target machine.
The integrated Driver‑in‑the‑Loop and Hardware‑in‑the‑Loop simulation platform developed by the DYNAMIS PRC Formula Student team showcases virtual vehicle development, early-stage testing, and system validation. This combined system merges a multibody vehicle model with physical car electronics, creating a unified environment in which dynamics, control systems, and hardware interact as they would on track.
Powered by a Speedgoat Performance real‑time machine, the simulator runs a detailed multibody model and emulates the complete high‑voltage system, including the battery pack and inverter logic. These components communicate over CAN with the actual boards on the hardware test bench, enabling full scale testing of algorithms such as torque vectoring and accumulator management.
This video presents an overview of the fully integrated simulator, highlighting its structure, capabilities, and the enhanced realism achieved through the combination of Driver‑ and Hardware‑in‑the‑Loop simulation. It demonstrates how this platform strengthens development, testing, and driver training well before the car reaches the track.
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3rd Place
Hyperloop Control System Development
Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain – Alejandro Jarabo Ruiz
This project shows the development of a control system for the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system where vehicles use magnetic levitation to travel in low-pressure tubes at speeds up to 1,000 km/h. This project uses MATLAB Simulink to model, simulate, and test the control system, starting with desktop simulations of a five-degree-of-freedom vehicle model before moving to real-time prototyping and testing.
The controller is designed to manage the vehicle’s position and orientation using a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) approach. It features cascaded control loops: an inner loop regulates the electromagnetic actuator currents, while an outer loop controls the vehicle’s position and orientation. The system includes realistic elements like sensor noise and dynamic filtering, and uses automatic code generation to ensure the same controller is used from simulation through to real-time deployment.
Overall, the project shows how an integrated workflow using Simulink can efficiently develop and validate a complex, safety-critical control system. The close match between simulation and real-world testing confirms the reliability of the approach, highlighting its potential to safely manage high-speed Hyperloop vehicles and influence the future of rapid transit.
