2018 Mahindra SAE Baja at Pithampur showcased the endurance, resilience and engineering excellence of students across the country with undying passion
The eleventh edition of the Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 at Pithampur had come to a closure leaving behind many exhilarating moments and we were thrilled to be part of witnessing all the action that unfolded. A total of 46 out of 86 mBAJA teams and 7 out of 25 eBAJA teams tussled in the all important endurance round composing of both mBAJA and eBAJA.
The endurance race was flagged off by Mr. Babul Supriyo, an Indian playback singer, actor and politician and Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises along with Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. The fourth edition of eBAJA aimed at providing a new platform to leverage the onset of Electric Mobility in India and it saw participation from 160 colleges at Pithampur.
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As a whole, 388 teams had registered in the 11th year of BAJA SAEINDIA series and after strenuous tests and examinations, only 221 (161 for Pithampur and 60 for IIT Ropar scheduled from 8th to 11th March) teams qualified for the grand finale. Among them, only 112 (87 teams for mBAJA and 25 for eBAJA) teams from different colleges across the country made it to the Endurance round.
This year marked an astonishing feat with 4,000 students from different parts of India celebrated the BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 theme ‘Ground to Glory’. BAJA provides students a pragmatic exposure to real-world challenges as faced in the industry and spurs them towards discovering out-of-the-box solutions. engineering students can innovate and come up with practical solutions for various issues facing the industry and society through the highly competitive event.
Smt. Kashibai Navale College of Engineering from Pune was declared the ‘Best eBAJA Team’ and D.Y. Patil College of Engineering from Pune was declared the ‘Best mBAJA Team’. Various other awards to the teams for static events were presented. Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s College Of Engineering from Pune and Smt. Kashibai Navale College of Engineering, Pune (mBAJA) and bagged the Engineering Design award whereas Dr D.Y Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri (Pune) won the Go Green- Emissions Award.
In addition to total prize amount of Rs. 22,40,000/- for BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 Pithampur, the students walked away with excitement and sense of accomplishment for having participated in such a competitive event. The four-day event kicked off with basic Static Evaluation round in terms of design evaluation, cost evaluation and marketing presentation.
In the final round, the teams showcased their prototypes and were evaluated on various parameters, including engineering design, CAE, cost and technology innovation. The main objective of the competition was to simulate real world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Each team’s goal was to create a safe, easily transported, easily maintained and fun to drive prototype without any direct involvement from professional fabricators.
Apart from the major goals, the teams were free to design their own transmissions with the only restriction being the speed limit of 60 kmph. The Dynamic Evaluation Round tested vehicles for acceleration, sled pull, maneuverability and Suspension & Traction. Durability Evaluation Round saw the vehicles undergo endurance tests of one hour for eBAJA and four hours of mBAJA.
The Endurance Event assessed each vehicle’s ability to operate continuously and at a speed over rough terrain containing obstacles in any weather conditions. BAJA SAEINDIA provides out-of-classroom-education system, where engineering students from all over India can participate as a team. It originally started in the USA by the SAE International as Mini BAJA SAE and today it is being organized in several countries.
It is a platform for students to design, analyze, fabricate and validate 4-wheeled single-seater All-Terrain Vehicles. Their creations are evaluated during a series of Static, Dynamic and Durability events like design, cost evaluation, sales presentation, acceleration, maneuverability, hill climb and endurance.
Mahindra has played a prominent role in slating the event since its inception. The eBAJA is an event initiated by SC and OC of BAJA SAEINDIA and it engages more than 1,000 engineering students each year as part of enabling students to respond to the growing industry shift towards electrification. The eBAJA vehicles will run on electric motor powered by rechargeable Lithium ion battery pack.