Pune: The much-awaited physical Baja competition for the students of mechanical Engineering colleges is finally ready to take the floor at the avowed NATRAX facility in Pithampur, near Indore from April 6 to 10.
SAEINDIA, the professional Society of Automotive Engineers, which has been in forefront of conducting this exceptional event for the last 15 years announced that it has received 127 entries from 111 Engineering colleges for the Physical round of the BAJA SAEINDIA 2022. The Physical Round is happening after a gap of 2 years as the Covid pandemic prevented the event from being conducted. SAEINDIA however had come up with virtual-BAJA, which gave students important exposure of working on a digital platform.
There were 203 entries from 185 colleges for the virtual event, which was completed in December 2021. Out of the 203 teams, 127 teams qualified to compete in the final event physically. 81 teams out of 127 are registered for conventional m-BAJA & 46 teams for e-BAJA events across 19 states and Union territories.
BAJA SAEINDIA tasks the students to conceptualize design, build, test & validate a single-seater four-wheeled All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to take part in a series of events. This year it has been conducted in three phases—two virtual phases one physical.
The 5-day event will incorporate the technical inspection of the physical ATVs of the participating teams, followed by dynamic events such as Brakes, Acceleration, Draw Pull, Suspension & Traction, Manoeuvrability, and All-Terrain Performance. The go-green event and final round of the static events: CAE, Design, and Cost will be conducted parallelly. The final day will experience a 4-hour prolonged battle amongst the teams, an endurance race followed by the Valedictory function.
“BAJA SAEINDIA is an Out-of-classroom Education under STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) principle and it provides an opportunity to engineering students through Project-based Learning. It is more of a Learning event than winning and the competitive atmosphere at BAJA always puts learning at the front and nurtures the growth of students right before they enter the competitive environment of the industry. The competition enables them to grapple with a real-life application and improve their skills related to innovation, entrepreneurship & leadership,” said Dr K C Vora, Chairman of BAJA SAEINDIA Organizing Committee and CEO.
“Indeed, all of this will help BAJA SAEINDIA contribute to building yet another generation of readymade engineers & start-ups. I wish all the participating teams at BAJA SAEINDIA 2022 the very best.” Dr Vora said.
This year the physical event has been moved to a new location nearby, which is more rugged.
“BAJA SAEINDIA is slated to become more challenging for the participating teams taking the event to a whole new level. With this, “said Harshit Merchant, Convenor of BAJA SAEINDIA.
Over the years, BAJA has grown in numbers and has become a bigger event nationally, signifying its increasing popularity as it serves as a platform for young engineering talent to showcase their skills and acquire real-life experience while overcoming obstacles and challenges – something that is critical for their long-term success.
