Registrations for the 13th edition of Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA 2020 have started and the last date for registration is June 15, 2019. The 13th edition of the competition started on 23rd May 2019 at Mumbai, when Dr. Bala Bharadwaj, MD of Boeing India and President of SAEINDIA signed MoU with Dr. Pawan Goenka, MD, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and Chairman of Steering Committee of BAJA SAEINDIA 2020. Dr. K C Vora, Sr Deputy Director of ARAI is the Chairman of the Organizing Committee.
In order to participate in the BAJA event, interested engineering colleges are required to create a team of 25 out of 50 SAEINDIA student members in their SAEINDIA Collegiate Club.
Each team is tasked to create a vehicle known as ‘Buggy’, an All-Terrain Vehicle, which has to comply with multiple parameters and technical inspection before it is allowed to compete in the final endurance race. Students are expected to design Buggy having the best suspension, steering & brakes with a strong roll cage, considering the New Product Development (NPD) Cycle with all quality and safety aspects. The target weight of the buggy to be less than 125 kg.
Virtual BAJA SAEINDIA 2019, a qualifier for BAJA SAEINDIA 2020, will be conducted for all the teams to evaluate their preparedness for the events. The teams would be judged on various parameters in the virtual BAJA SAEINDIA 2020 event like knowledge of the rulebook, the concept of the buggy, the project plan, the design methodology, CAE Analysis, the Design Failure Mode & Effect Analysis (DFMEA) and Design Validation Plan (DVP), the online test, the presentation, the extempore and the viva sessions. The entries presented at the virtual BAJA are 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 own buggy.
As far as eBAJA is concerned, more and more teams are getting ready to participate to learn eMobility technology moving very fast in the country. To promote electric mobility and to develop human resource for working in this area, SAEINDIA has declared financial support of Rs.50,000 to all the new eBAJA teams. SAEINDIA also supports diversity like teams from all states, more women engineers and more engineering students from the non-mechanical background.
The finale to be held from 23 to 26 January 2020 at Pithampur and 6 to 8 March 2020 at Punjab with Virtual Baja from 12 to 13 July 2019 at Chitkara University.
SAEINDIA is gearing up to celebrate its silver Jubilee in 2020 with a plan to conduct Baja at three locations from 2021.