The much awaited eleventh edition of the Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 at Pithampur finally came to an end yesterday, leaving behind many exhilarating moments. A total of 46 out of 86 mBAJA teams and 7 out of 25 eBAJA teams competed the endurance round comprising both mBAJA and eBAJA.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’. The endurance event 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.This was the fourth edition of eBAJA which aims to provide a platform to leverage the onset of Electric Mobility in India. The event saw participation from 160 colleges at Pithampur.About 388 teams had registered in the 11th year of BAJA SAEINDIA series, out of which 221 (161 for Pithampur and 60 for Ropar) teams qualified for the finale. However, only 112 (87 teams for mBAJA and 25 for eBAJA) made it to the Endurance round. This year was remarkable with 4000 students from different parts of the country celebrating the BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 theme ‘Ground to Glory’.
Showing appreciation for an event such as BAJA, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “India is blessed with immense talent but knowledge and creativity gets restricted in classrooms and therefore it is desirable that such competitions are encouraged. 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.
It therefore gives us immense pride to have played an instrumental role in bringing BAJA to India around 11-years ago. The success and enthusiasm shown by students towards BAJA year after year shows that our role might have spurred many innovations that will benefit society over the long term.”Mr. Mukesh K. Tiwari, Convener BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 & Dy. General Manager, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Two Wheeler Division) said, “India is a land that has always spurred unconventional ideas and transformed them into reality thereby benefitting all nations. India’s youth are a treasure trove of knowledge and not bound by any restrictions. If provided freedom and an unhindered environment to grow – the youth can innovate and come up with unconventional solutions. It is with this objective that we supported BAJA SAEINDIA all these years so that engineering students can innovate and come up with practical solutions for various issues facing the industry and society.”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 a sense of accomplishment for having participated in such a competitive event.The four-day event started with basic Static Evaluation round which comprised of design evaluation, cost evaluation and marketing presentation.
In the final round, the teams showcased their prototype of a rugged single seat, off-road recreational four-wheel vehicle and were evaluated on various parameters, including engineering design, CAE, cost and technology innovation.The 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.However, the teams were free to design their own transmissions with the only restriction being the speed limit to 60kmph. The Dynamic Evaluation Round tested the vehicles for acceleration, sled pull, manoeuvrability 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.The 2nd part of 11th edition of BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 is scheduled at IIT Ropar, Punjab from 8th to 11th March 2018.
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, analyze, fabricate and validate an all-terrain vehicle. This is evaluated during a series of Static, Dynamic and Durability events like design, cost evaluation, sales presentation, acceleration, maneuverability, hill climb and endurance.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. 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 8 years Mahindra is the title sponsor and proudly continue to remain the same this year too, and others like ARAI, Altair, Anand Automotives, Ansys, ASDC, AVL, Bharat Petroleum, BKT, Bosch , Briggs & Stratton, Chitkara University, Continental, Cummins, Device Electronics, Eleation, GM, IAC, iCAT, ITW Chemin, IIT Ropar, Lear, L&T, LNCT, Math Works, Medanta Hospital, Mentor Graphics, M P Consulting, NATRiP, OYO Rooms, Padmini Engineering, Priya Events, Power Equipment, Radisson Hotels, Think Creative Solutions Ltd., Varroc and Wurth are also proudly continuing their support towards the event. It is also supported by SIAM and ACMA.
About eBAJA
eBAJA is an event initiated by SC and 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 organizing 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 stabilize 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.