Mahindra Baja Saeindia 2020 commences its 13th edition

Pune, November 5, 2019: SAEINDIA, a professional Society of Automotive Engineers, in association with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, today announced the commencement of the 13th edition of the much-awaited BAJA SAEINDIA series. The finale will be held at the NATRIP facility at Pithampur near Indore, from 23rd to January 26, 2020, followed by Chitkara University near Chandigarh from 6th to March 8, 2020. Two hundred eighty-two entries from 486 SAEINDIA Collegiate clubs across India, were received for BAJA SAEINDIA 2020, out of which 200 teams are shortlisted for conventional m-BAJA & 53 teams are shortlisted for e-BAJA from the virtual round. 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 spread across a course of four days. The event will include Technical Inspection, Static Evaluation such as Design, Cost & Sales Presentation, and Dynamic Events such as Acceleration, Sledge Pull, Manoeuvrability. Suspension & Traction followed by an Endurance Event of 4 hours. A remarkable feature unique to BAJA SAEINDIA is the adoption of a new theme every year. This year, the theme for BAJA 2020 is 'Breaking Conventions,' that celebrates BAJA, which, is all about challenging conventions, say it eBAJA or an all-girls team. The Indian Mobility Industry is facing a few challenges today. Baja SAEINDIA would like to convert these challenging times to opportunities for our country's budding engineers and make them future-ready. They could break the wall of conventional thinking in design & execution, and ideas and become glorified innovators who can lead the future of Indian mobility. BAJA SAEINDIA initiated the eBAJA series in 2015, to leverage the onset of Electric Mobility in India. The conventional BAJA vehicles run on 10 HP Briggs & Stratton gasoline engine, common for all Baja teams, whereas eBAJA vehicles will run on the electric motor with 6 kW peak electric power and powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack. Here, the students are free to source the motor, controller & battery and design their own Battery Management System. This year, we have encouraged more students from the Electrical & Electronic engineering field to participate in the event, considering the requirement of Human Resource for Electric Vehicles. For BAJA SAEINDIA 2020, 25 colleges from Pune are among the 66 entries from Maharashtra that have qualified for the finale. For the last few editions of the Baja SAEINDIA series, the maximum number of entries from Maharashtra has been from the city of Pune. Colleges from Pune have won the maximum number of awards in the finale in the last few years For the BAJA finale, entries from engineering colleges from across the country were screened at the Virtual Round held at Chitkara University, Punjab, in July 2019, where they presented their Designs for the BAJA Buggy vehicle that they wished to design for the final event. The qualifying teams were selected through a thorough analysis of their CAD Designs, CAE analysis, and the designs of Roll Cage, Suspension, Steering & Brakes, along with with their Rule book VIVA sessions and evaluation on extempore topics given to them. The entries presented at the virtual BAJA were mock-ups that would be created with exact specifications by the participants. The teams in the final round would showcase their skills, understanding, and passion for automobiles while having manufactured their buggy race car. Speaking on occasion, Mr. S. Balraj, Convener, BAJA SAEINDIA 2020, said, "Events like BAJA SAEINDIA provide students the platform to instill the much-needed practical experience to prepare future designers and leaders. I am hopeful, like every year, this year too, the teams would perform to best of their abilities." 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. Similarly, IIT Ropar came forward to organize the 2nd leg of BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 at Roopnagar. SAEINDIA's Engineering Education Board and Baja Core Team will announce Baja 3 soon. It will be hosted in one of the Engineering Cities of South India that will make the Baja Journey closer to our student members in Southern part of India.