Clouds and some sun this morning with more clouds for this afternoon. Areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times. High 91F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Areas of smoke reducing visibility at times. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. WVU RoboRacer team members and an adviser are pictured with their autonomous race cars after placing third overall at the 28th RoboRacer Autonomous Racing Competition during the 2026 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium in Detroit. MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A team of West Virginia University engineering students placed third overall at the 28th RoboRacer Autonomous Racing Competition in Detroit. The competition was held during the 2026 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium and featured 17 university teams, including teams from the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University and Purdue University. The WVU RoboRacer team, from the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, competed with 1:10-scale autonomous race cars designed to drive at high speeds, avoid crashes, overtake opponents and complete laps as quickly as possible. The team was led by Andrew Sarver, a master’s student in computer science, and mentored by Mohamed Elgouhary, a doctoral student in electrical engineering. Team members included Evan Anderson, a computer science graduate who plans to pursue a master’s degree in computer science this fall, and Blake Buskirk, a senior undergraduate student in electrical engineering. Amr El-Wakeel, assistant professor and coordinator for robotics in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, said this year’s competition featured one of the longest tracks in RoboRacer history. He said some teams used artificial intelligence, including WVU. The WVU team built and integrated both hardware and software systems for its scaled-down autonomous race car. Those systems included the motor, speed controllers, an in-house 3D-printed suspension, computing board, LiDAR sensor and