Viva Las Vegas!

And here, “at the start” can be taken literally. The two students from the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) qualified for the final in autonomous driving. In the qualifying round, Ahmed and Zahi beat their competitors in the Deepracer Cup in Heilbronn and won the all-inclusive tickets to Las Vegas. The two of them only found out about the race by chance: “I saw the QR code for the competition on campus. So I sent Zahi a message: do you want to take part? He said: ‘Yeah, sure,’” explains Ahmed.

Outstanding qualification

The two of them won the Deepracer Cup from Audi Sport. Zahi remembers: “There was a course in the middle. Then each team had two or three minutes. In those two minutes, we drove as much as possible, and the fastest lap was counted as the winning lap.” The winning time for the two of them was 7.7 seconds. That was just barely short of the world record of 7.5 seconds. The “small” consolation prize was a trip to Las Vegas. The ticket for the AWS re:invent trade fair alone was worth 2,000 dollars.

At the finale in the desert city, they managed a satisfactory eighth place: “We took part in the wildcard race, in which the top six qualify for the grand finale,” says Ahmed. However, not quite making it to the final six is no reason to be sad: “We gave it our best shot, but sometimes the competition is just a bit stronger.” Nevertheless, Zahi has some unique memories: “I had the chance to take part in a particularly exciting event at a huge trade fair and to travel to a dazzling city like Las Vegas – three months ago, that was still unimaginable for me.” In addition to the race, the two were also able to use the time to connect: “We met many people from different backgrounds – real experts in their field.”

Across the pond

Back in Germany, a new phase of life awaits Zahi: “A month ago, I started working for a cloud engineering company.” The young Palestinian looks back on his time on campus with a smile: “I was part of the first cohort of computer scientists at TUM Campus Heilbronn. It was a colorful mix of people from different parts of the world: South America, Asia, Africa, etc.” Ahmed is also studying for a bachelor’s degree in Information Engineering and still has a few months to think about his future: “Either I do my master’s straight away or I get some work experience first.”

Not only are the two of them good at programming, they are also efficient: “For the Deepracer Cup in Germany, we developed the appropriate program in one day; for the final in Las Vegas, we took three weeks,” says Zahi. They also received help from above, courtesy of the family of Ahmed, who is from Egypt but lives in New Zealand: “Just before the national final, I called my parents in New Zealand. The time difference is 12 hours. My parents were both asleep – I woke them up and said: ‘Pray for me!’”