Bala Reddy Kolanu (left) and Alek Habecker (right) posing with the Boiler Autonomy platform during the competition.

Alek Habecker (CCE intern) and Bala Reddy Kolanu (ECE graduate student) represented Purdue at the 28th International Roboracer Competition that took place in Detroit as part of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE IV), June 22–25, 2026.

RoboRacer Autonomous Racing is an international competition organized by community of researchers, engineers, and autonomous systems enthusiasts in 90 universities across 20 countries. Participating teams design and build a 1:10 scale autonomous race car following provided specifications and develop software that enables their vehicle to meet two core objectives: avoid collisions and minimize lap times. The organizers provide build manuals and open-source software resources, and the competition provides a standardized track setup, guidelines, and physical and cyber infrastructure.

This year’s event was held at Detroit’s Huntington Place Convention Center.

The Purdue team (Boiler Autonomy), in its maiden entry, placed 7th out of approximately 20 teams. The team advisors are Professors Samuel Labi (CCE) and Lingxi Li (ECE), with support from Professor Brittany Newell of Purdue Polytechnic and graduate student Jayesh Fasate of ECE.

Boiler Autonomy is one of the several recent collaboration initiatives between Lyles CCE and other Purdue departments in the area of autonomous systems. In 2025, Professor Labi received a Kresge grant award from Lyles CCE that helped to purchase some of the technical hardware used in the competition. Alek Habecker is an undergraduate student from DePauw University currently interning in Lyles CCE. Bala Reddy Kolanu is a graduate student in ECE.