Lyles faculty member and Purdue team advisor Samuel Labi, together with CCE students Kendrew Agbemadzo, Yuvraj Segal, Jiayu Zhu, Andres Moreno, and Richard Ajagu and ECE graduate student Sashank Modali will be hosting the 4th Annual international AKS competition at the Purdue Grand Prix Track in West Lafayette, IN, May 21, 2026.

The event is being co-organized by Steering Committee members Danny White (former Director of Motorsports at Purdue and an international motorsports expert);  Andrew Goeden (AKS Founder and Director); Jack Silberman, UC San Diego; Gary Passon, UC Berkeley; and Sam Labi, Purdue.

The AKS events showcase recent innovations in autonomous vehicle navigation technology, pushing the boundaries of possibilities in go kart speed racing. Each team has carried out the fabrication and sensor stack assembly of their vehicle, and will come to Purdue in May 2026 to test their vehicle at the Grand Prix engineered track in a competitive environment. In so doing, the teams will learn valuable lessons related to the building of autonomous transport vehicle systems and how to troubleshoot practical issues related to autonomous vehicle localization, path planning and navigation, controls, and vehicle dynamics. These are critical safety- and mobility-related considerations in the emerging era of connected and autonomous transportation, and there are valuable lessons transportation engineers and highway designers can learn from these events.