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| Mechanical Engineering students placed 15th at this year's 2005 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini Baja Midwest competition. |
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| Cal Poly Pomona's students develop, design and test the SAE Baja vehicles in the department's Project Development Laboratory. |
A group of Mechanical Engineering students placed 15th at this year's 2005 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini Baja Midwest competition. The competition, held June 17-19 in Troy, Ohio, included 116 teams from across the nation. The team also competed in the SAE Mini Baja 100 competition June 1-4 in Tucson, Arizona, placing 32nd out of 119 teams.
“Our hands-on approach in the Mechanical Engineering department has always been a major component in the program,” says Mechanical Engineering professor Cliff Stover, adviser of Cal Poly Pomona's SAE Baja team. “Our students' ability to conceive, design, build and function in a team environment is again apparent by their outstanding showing this spring at two different international SAE design competitions.”
The SAE Baja is a competition that simulates real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are tasked to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain. Vehicles are tested in various competitions including a sled pull and four-hour endurance race.
The object of the competition is to provide SAE student members with a challenging project that involves the planning and manufacturing tasks found when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Teams compete against one another to have their design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm. Students must function as a team to not only design, build, test, promote, and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, but also to generate financial support for their project and manage their educational priorities.
All vehicles are powered by a ten-horsepower Intek Model 20 engine donated by Briggs & Stratton Corp.
Cal Poly Pomona's Mechanical Engineering students developed, designed and tested the SAE Baja vehicles in the department's Project Development Laboratory.