OVERVIEW |
Baja SAE is a collegiate competition where students design, build, and race a single person off-road vehicle (ORV) to compete in a new segment of the ORV market. Cars are judged on mechanical design, cost, marketing and sales pitch, individual time trial events, and a 4-hour endurance race with 100 vehicles on the track. At the heart of each car lives an unmodified Briggs and Stratton 10 hp motor. This forces teams push the limits of their understanding in every subsystem to build the lightest, fastest, and most durable car possible.
Joining the Northeastern Baja team was something that I knew I wanted to do before being accepted. As soon as they let me into the shop in the fall of 2012, I knew I had found a home. As time went on, I dedicated most of my free time working on the car often spending over 30 hours a week on it after school and work. My third year on the team (2014), I became the suspension design lead, responsible for all mechanical designs and overall vehicle dynamics. My fourth year (2015) I became the captain, which saw my responsibilities expand to setting overall goals, full system integration, conducting design reviews, manufacturing timeline, and administrative tasks such as budgeting, purchasing, and interacting with the university and sponsors at all levels. During my time as Captain, the grew from 10 to over 30 members and restructured to improve the overall organization and keep everyone working as efficiently as possible. We were able to take on more students and get them working at younger ages, which lead to an increase in the technical level of our engineering efforts and a better performing car. In that time, I personally implemented our very first custom front wheel hubs, rack and pinion steering system, and three link rear suspension. I also helped manage the implementation of out first CVT based drivetrain, our first custom brake calipers and rotors, and two new frames. In 2017, the fruits of our new design philosophy and organization paid off. The team captured 7th place overall in the Kansas competition and 5th place overall in Illinois with a 1st place rock crawl performance and 2nd place in overall dynamics. This is the first time in 10 years that the team achieved multiple top ten performances in a single season and only the 4th time ever. Click on the pictures below to learn more about some of my sample projects. |