Engineering confidence, the Gen Next way

Sneha Patil from Pune, N Pradeep from Chennai, Hardik Sarsondia from Mehsana, Ria Madan from Delhi and Ashwin Godthi from Guntur all had only one thing in mind — to make their team’s buggy the best.

On an extraordinarily humid Saturday afternoon in February, more than 3,000 engineering students from across the country lined up at the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) Track at Pithampur near Indore.

They were here to take part in the eighth edition of Baja SAEIndia 2015, a competition where engineering students build their vehicle from scratch and put it to test against the best.

“For the last eight months, this has been the only thing on our mind,” said Sarsondia, the leader of Team Shatasva from CB Patel College of Engineering, Mehsana. He, along with the 22 others in his team, was competing in the first ever eBaja competition in India. Their mandate was to create an electric buggy that would clear all the quality tests and survive in the final endurance event. This would involve doing the maximum number of laps around the four kilometre track within an hour. “Even though it is extracurricular, the hands-on experience this offers is better than learning in the classroom,” added Sarsondia.

The Baja events, which began with only 10 vehicles at the University of South Carolina in 1976, have grown in stature to become the world’s best intercollegiate engineering competition. While the India edition has been on since 2008, Baja competitions are also a regular feature in Brazil, South Africa and South Korea.

“It is a true engineering project. The students gain a lot, getting to learn about the fundamentals and applying them effectively. They also learn to communicate about their product efficiently,” said Karen Ramsey-Idem, a senior official at Cummins Inc, who has seen numerous Baja events since the competition’s inception. “India has gotten better in the last few years. The tests are more rigorous and the students are getting better as well,” she added.

For this year’s Baja event, 323 teams had applied, of which 122 were selected to come to Pithampur. In the eBaja event, of the 12 teams which had applied, eight made it to the final rounds.

The teams are tested in a variety of categories broadly divided into dynamic and static tests. The static tests include a technical inspection, cost efficiency and design. The exhilarating dynamic tests, which are the more fun part of the event, include an acceleration test, a hill climb event, manoeuvrability tests and the final endurance race.

Mahindra & Mahindra, which has been spearheading the Baja events in India, not only offers financial assistance to some teams but also conducts most of the tests while taking the lead in the overall organisation of the event.

“Our company’s core philosophies of self-learning and promoting a passion for auto-engineering fits in well with the idea of Baja and that is the reason we have always been interested,” says Sanjay Nibandhe, Deputy General Manager, who has been leading the technical committee since the first edition. “The increase in Baja’s quality over the last few years reflects the increase in confidence among potential, future engineers of India. They get a lot of training here which goes a long way once they are in the industry,” he adds.

Baja is also known for the job opportunities it offers for some of the participants with many auto majors, not least M&M, hiring talent from here every year. “Even in my team, around eight people were hired following their performance in past Baja events,” says Nibandhe.

Following the final endurance event, the most consistent team in India’s Baja scene, the College of Engineering, Pune, bagged top honours, with their sleek buggy weighing only 160 kg. This is, incidentally, the first time that over 20 teams built buggies weighing less than 200 kg. KL University, Guntur won the eBaja competition. For most of the participants, though, it was more about being out there on the tracks rather than winning.

As N Pradeep from Anna University, Chennai said, “It is all about being here. As mechanical engineering students, an event like this shows us exactly how good or bad we are in the real world, or at least it’s the closest thing to this.” Kumar and his team mates did not get any sponsorship and pooled in their own money to build their buggy and bring it to the track. “It is a passion to build something with your own hands. We do not really get to do that much anywhere else.”

The writer was at Baja SAEIndia 2015 on an invitation from M&M