Bengaluru, June 23, 2016: SAEINDIA, a professional Society of Automotive Engineers, today announced the commencement of the 10th edition of the much awaited BAJA series. Mahindra & Mahindra is the title sponsor and the event is known as Mahindra presents BAJA SAEINDIA 2017.
The redesigned virtual round of Mahindra presents BAJA SAEINDIA 2017 will be held from June 24th to 25th, 2016, at Christ University, Bengaluru. The teams have already started feeling the heat of this upcoming Mega Event which is due to be held in the IT capital of India, Bengaluru. With around 413 teams from various engineering colleges of India, 5 students from each team totalling over 2000 students, the battlefield is set and ready for these student warriors to battle out their ideas.
In this two days event, the registered teams will be scrutinized for their knowledge and capability to participate successfully in the main event. Like last year, all the teams at the Virtual BAJA 2016 will have to make a presentation on their design, followed by an online test, which will carry equal weightage in their final selection. The evaluation process will test every participant’s knowledge on Rulebook and General Mechanical and Automotive Engineering questions. Based on the performance in Virtual BAJA, the teams would be selected for participation in the main event to be held in NATRiP, Pithampur near Indore.
BAJA SAE Series® is an event for the undergraduate engineering students, organized globally by the Society of Automotive Engineers, USA. The event spread like a wildfire since its inception in the year 1976 and broaden its horizon in the countries like USA, Mexico, South Africa, Korea, Brazil & India.
In India, the BAJA SAEINDIA (Society of Automotive Engineers) began its journey in the year 2007 and was launched under the leadership of Dr. Pawan Goenka (during his tenure as SAEINDIA President) and the convenorship of Dr. K.C. Vora. As SAEINDIA ventured on to the unchartered territory of holding a mega-event of this scale, NATRiP came forward to lend a helping hand through an earmarked zone at its upcoming proving grounds- NATRAX, situated at Pithampur , Indore.
BAJA SAEINDIA tasks the students to conceptualize design, build, test & validate a single-seater four wheeled All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to take part in series of events spread across a course of 3 days. The finale will be held at the NATRIP facility at Pithampur near Indore, from 15th to 19th February 2017 followed by HR meet on 20th & 21st February 2017.
A remarkable feature unique to BAJA SAEINDIA is the adoption of a new theme every year. This year the theme for BAJA 2017 is ‘Decade of Dream Dare & Drive’, which celebrates 10 glorious years of BAJA SAEINDIA. 10 years of students Dreaming to do things by applying alternative thinking, Daring to turn their Dreams into a reality by accepting no limits and Driving a positive change towards a brighter future.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “Mahindra is delighted to be associated with BAJA SAEINDIA 2017 as the title sponsor. With BAJA, we are taking forward the philosophy of Mahindra Rise to the next level. Year on year there has been an increase in participation from colleges. This is testimony to BAJA SAEINDIA’s growing popularity and its national significance. We at Mahindra believe the future belongs to those who believe in the power of their dreams. As we celebrate a Decade of Dreams, I am glad that BAJA SAEINDIA has been a forum that gives young engineering talent the platform to turn those dreams into a reality.”
Mr. Ravi Kharul, Convener BAJA SAEINDIA 2017 & Chief Technological Officer, Endurance Technologies said, “Virtual BAJA 2016 is a unique event which is one of its kind among all the BAJA events that happen across the world. From last few years, we have seen a participation of around 300 to 400 teams from all over the country for BAJA and this number keeps increasing year after year. Unlike other global events, which works on "first come first serve" basis, BAJA SAEINDIA didn't want to take away the learning opportunity for the students just because they were late to register. After several discussions, we introduced the Virtual BAJA round which gives a common platform to all the participating teams to present their design virtually. Only after a team has proven its worth through its design, it is given a clearance to make & run the vehicle at BAJA SAEINDIA main event. The virtual event has now reached new peak with 413 teams participating this season and the competition is fierce than ever. This event gives the students an opportunity to design a car, gain new skills and experiences which will definitely aid them in their engineering career.”
BAJA SAEINDIA initiated eBAJA from the year 2015 and this year around 48 teams have applied to participate for the same. Each team will be allotted INR 2 Lakhs for the vehicle from BAJA budget through various sponsors.
To make the event more professional, a team of organizing committee members visited BAAJ SAE at Rochester Institute of Technology, USA where 6 teams from India participated successfully including RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru.
Speaking at the conference, Dr. (Fr.) Thomas C Mathew, Vice Chancellor, Christ University said, “This competition ‘BAJA’ will not only expose our students to various automotive giants who can enhance their knowledge in the automobile field, but will also imbibe in them a sense of hard work, team spirit and leadership. The students will be motivated to be the best amongst some of the finest teams in India and create a niche for themselves.”
BAJA serves as a platform for young engineering talent to showcase their skills and acquire a real life experience while overcoming obstacle and challenges.
About BAJA SAEINDIA
BAJA SAEINDIA is an educational pursuit for the engineering college students, an out-of-classroom-education system, where engineering students from all over India can participate as a team, giving them pragmatic exposure to real world challenges as faced in the industry. Originally started in the USA by the SAE International as Mini BAJA SAE, today it is being organized in several countries. In India, it is being organized as BAJA SAEINDIA. An international student level competition in which teams from universities all over the country, design, analyse, fabricate and validate an all-terrain vehicle which is evaluated during a series of Static, Dynamic and Durability events like design, cost evaluation, sales presentation, acceleration, manoeuvrability, hill climb and endurance.
The first edition saw the participation of 27 teams while for the decade edition there are 413 teams that have registered to be among the 150+ teams that will battle it out on NATRiP’s proving ground for BAJA SAEINDIA. Such a phenomenal growth has been achieved without any marketing or promotional expenditure.
Over the years, BAJA has grown in popularity and has become a bigger event nationally signifying its increasing popularity. It serves as a platform for young engineering talent to showcase their skills and acquire a real life experience while overcoming obstacles and challenges - something that is critical for their long term success. These engineers showcase their passion for automobiles by conceiving, designing and fabricating a 4-wheeled single-seater All Terrain Vehicle.
BAJA thrives on the students' love for their subjects and their thirst to learn hands-on. The passion recirculates back into BAJA by having the alumni members, organizing and coordinating the event throughout the year, which is the primary reason why BAJA SAEINDIA is a grand success and why it gets better every year. BAJA is a platform of the enthusiasts, by the enthusiasts and for the enthusiasts.
Mahindra is playing a prominent role in slating the event since its inception under the able leadership of Dr. Pawan Goenka as the Chairman of the Steering committee of BAJA SAEINDIA. Since last 5 years Mahindra is the title sponsor and proudly continue to remain the same this year too, and others like Bharat Petroleum, Lear, Altair, Anand Automotives, Cummins, Delphi, Endurance, John Deere, L&T, NATRiP, Varroc, Wurth, GM, Ansys, AVL, ITW Chemin, Medanta Hospital, Polaris, ARAI, iCAT, Xitadel, B&S, Bosch, Continental, Eleation, IAC, Mentor Graphics, Padmini Engineering, Priya Events, PTC, Radisson Hotels & Volvo are also proudly continuing their support towards the event.
About eBAJA
eBAJA is an event initiated by SC & OC of BAJA SAEINDIA which engages more than 1000 engineering students every year. To leverage the onset of electric mobility in India we had started this event under the convenorship of Mr. Subodh Morye in 2015. This is a platform where engineering students get an opportunity to build an electric vehicle on the same dynamics of BAJA rulebook and experience the wonder that this vehicle does with electric power. During a session with, His Excellency Late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India, he suggested the organising committee to utilize this platform for national prosperity. Overwhelmed by his thoughts the organizing committee decided to include a new sub event to its 8th season – named eBAJA. As the conventional BAJA is all about petrol driven ATVs, eBAJA vehicles will run on electric motor powered by rechargeable Lithium ion battery pack.
eBAJA is the concept of electric driven BAJA ATVs to lay emphasis on “Electrical Mobility. Fossil fuels take millions of years of solar energy and rare geographical events to get produced and are harmful in nature. Hence, there is a need to move towards sustainable as well as clean technology which can help us achieve energy independence and stabilise human -induced climatic change. Also these fuels are perishable resources of energy, which can cause energy scarcity in future, we need to come up with alternate resources of energy for the development of mobility and have a sustainable growth. Therefore, we believe that electric mobility is the future which will play a significant role in the growth of the nation.
Through this event we intent young minds of our nation get an opportunity to experiment and explore the electric science of mobility which is to be the future. This time we have 48 teams individually registered for eBAJA.