Helsing is a European defence technology company building AI-enabled systems for real-world deployment. In three facets our challenge explores areas of engineering that are critical to both Formula Student and our own work when building physical products for the real world: software deployment, autonomous performance, and safety systems.
Three Facets, One Goal
The challenge is split into three facets, each submitted as a standalone report in PDF format (DIN A4, max three pages of text plus three pages of supplementary material).
Each facet is scored from 0 to 100 points, and a team's final score is the sum of their two best submissions — so teams can skip one facet without penalty. The top six teams are then invited to discuss their work with Helsing engineers at the Hockenheim event. The teams placing first, second, and third are awarded prizes of 3000 €, 2000 €, and 1000 €, respectively.
Facet 1: Software Deployment and Integration
Deploying software to hardware is a problem that we at Helsing face in almost every project, especially when integrating all components with a system’s hardware. We’ve built extensive internal tooling to handle the challenges that arise there. For this challenge, we’d like to know how you are solving these challenges.
We value depth of engineering thinking and honest assessment over sophistication of tooling. Whether your deployment is fully automated or primarily manual, explain your technical reasoning, the trade-offs you’ve considered, and how you address current limitations.
See the appendix FSG26_Helsing_Challenge_01_Software.pdf for details.
Submission deadline: 2026-04-05 23:59 CEST.
Facet 2: Beat the Human
Achieving autonomous driving capabilities is a significant milestone, but the ultimate goal, at Helsing and in Formula Student, is to outperform the best human operators in complex, dynamic environments. For this challenge, we want to understand where your autonomous system currently stands in this race against human performance.
We recognise that autonomous systems are at different stages of maturity. Focus on rigorous data-driven analysis rather than overall performance claims. Whether you beat human lap times or not, we value honest assessments of what your data shows, where gaps exist, and your engineering approach to closing them.
The detailed task description will be published on 2026-04-06. Submission deadline: 2026-05-03 23:59 CEST.
Facet 3: Autonomous Safety Systems
Building an autonomous vehicle that drives fast is one thing - ensuring it does so safely and handles failures gracefully is another. For this challenge, we want to understand how you approach safety in practice.
We value thoughtful safety engineering and honest assessment. Focus on your technical reasoning, risk decisions, and lessons from testing.
The detailed task description will be published on 2026-05-04. Submission deadline: 2026-05-31 23:59 CEST.
Contact
For questions about this challenge, contact formulastudent-help@helsing.ai.