Drive UM, a team of young scientists and engineers from the University of Malta, have made it to the semi-final of a prestigious international technological student competition – the Bosch Future Mobility Challenge.

The competition is hosted by the Bosch Engineering Center Cluj, and sees competitors develop autonomous driving solutions on 1/10 scale vehicles provided by the company.

The students work on their projects in collaboration with Bosch experts for six months to develop the best-performing algorithms, before facing off in a semi-final and final in Romania.

The Malta team’s motto is “innovation through learning", and the members are Gianluca Baldacchino, Chris Bonnici, Keith George Ciantar, Keith Azzopardi, and Dean of the University's Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, Carl James Debono.

The team has already made strides in the competition, graduating through the first round of eliminations to the semi-final where 18 of the original 50 teams are competing.

Explaining why he was taking part, Mr Ciantar said he wants to take the “skills and knowledge gained at university into a practical application which will be relevant to the future”.

On the part of Mr Azzopardi, he stated he was competing because he is interested in how autonomous vehicles can make transportation “safer and more efficient.”

The semi-finals are set to take place on 15th-18th September, before the finals on 19th September.

The competition’s winner will get a prize of €4,500, where the second and third will win €3,000 and €1,500 respectively.

There is also the ‘Best New Participating Team Prize’, and ‘The Audience Award’, which is given to the team with the most online likes.

Voting is currently open, and readers can show their support for the team on the competition’s website.