BAJA / Student off-road vehicle project
Building our first off-road vehicle
During my mechanical engineering degree, I captained a 25-member team entering BAJA, a student off-road vehicle competition, for the first time. We had to organize the people and funding as well as design and build the vehicle.
- Setting
- Undergraduate mechanical engineering project, 2017–2018.
- Team
- 25 members in five groups responsible for different parts of the vehicle.
- My responsibility
- Team leadership, weekly planning and fundraising coordination.
- Deliverable
- An off-road vehicle built by the team and entered in competition.
Five groups working toward one vehicle
I organized the team into five groups responsible for different parts of the vehicle. Team members did the detailed engineering work, while I coordinated progress across the groups.
We met each Monday to review progress across the five groups.
The team's off-road vehicle in the workshop during the build.
View full-size workshop photoFundraising alongside design and fabrication
Fundraising progressed alongside the engineering work. My responsibility was to keep those activities coordinated through the design round, fabrication, and preparation for competition.
The team passed the design round and built the vehicle shown in the workshop photograph.
The brake test ended our competition entry
The vehicle failed the brake test, and the team was disqualified. We had completed the build and brought it to competition, but it did not meet that test requirement.