Design. Build. Compete.
SAE Baja competitions offer real world experience for students which helps to provide an understanding of the engineering design process. Each competition is an opportunity to collaborate with industry manufacturers, engineers, and other professionals while allowing students to hone, build, and refine machining and fabrication skills.
Static Events
Competition teams are subjected to more than just design challenges. Effective communication skills, presentation skills, and technical engineering knowledge are crucial to succeed in the static events. These events consist of the technical inspection, engineering design presentation, business presentation and a cost audit report.
In the technical inspection, technical judges inspect and analyze every aspect of the vehicle to ensure that all competition specifications and requirements are satisfied. The engineering design presentation provides an opportunity for event judges to learn about the research, design, manufacture, and testing of the competition vehicle.
The business presentation showcases creativity of the team in a unique way. Following a given prompt, teams are required to think as a baja vehicle manufacturing company and adapt to the needs of it's customers and business opportunities. In addition to the technical inspection and the engineering design presentation, the cost audit report brings awareness of the importance of making a cost effective design. Teams itemize each component of the vehicle and the process in which the components were manufactured.
Dynamic Events
Once the judges have heard about each competition team's vehicles, it is time to see them in action. Baja SAE offers a variety of individualized challenges designed for various components of the baja vehicles to face, such as acceleration, brake test, sled pull, hill climb, maneuverability, and suspension and traction. The main event, which is a four hour endurance race, puts all teams in a head to head situation to see which vehicle is able to complete the highest amount of laps.
