The Michigan State University (MSU) Baja Racing Team won the national Stand-Alone Innovation Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for creating a high performance four-wheel-drive Baja SAE vehicle.
SAE Collegiate Design Competitions require student teams to design, build and race an off-road vehicle. The students are then judged based on the vehicle’s maneuverability, suspension and traction, acceleration, sled pull and, in some competitions, water maneuverability.
Creating and racing four-wheel drive systems is difficult because they break down easily and are hard to fix in the middle of a race, says MSU engineering student Emily Duszynski.
But the MSU team created the first four-wheel drive system and won the innovation award.
“It was a huge success for us and we were really excited about it,” Duszynski says. It was also a valuable learning experience.
“When you’re at an SAE shop or in a competition and only have 30 seconds to figure out how to get a bolt to stay in just so you can get back in the pit, that’s real engineering,” she says. “It’s using all the things you learned in school and actually applying them.”
Working systematic knowledge is very attractive to employers, Duszynski says.
“In terms of jobs, it’s a huge advantage if you’ve been in the SAE,” she says. “It puts you a little step ahead of everyone else.”
Source: Emily Duszynski, MSU Baja SAE Racing Team
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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