Best Talent of Automotive Engineering will Compete for the Mahindra Presents Bajasaeindia 2016 Virtual Event at Chitkara University

The redesigned Virtual round of Mahindra presents BAJA SAEINDIA 2016 is set to debut on 10th & 11th July 2015 at Chitkara University, Punjab, the teams have already started feeling the heat of this upcoming Mega Event to be held in the angelic city of Chandigarh. With over 380 plus teams, 2000 plus students from 350 institutions are ready for the battleship of ideas.
Going to the history of this much awaited event, the BAJA SAE Series® is an event for the undergraduate engineering students, organized globally by the Society of Automotive Engineers, USA. The event spread like a wildfire in the year 1976 and broaden its horizon in the countries like USA, Mexico, South Africa, Korea, Brazil, India and more.

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.

BAJA SAEINDIA tasks the students to conceptualize design, build, test & validate a single-seater four wheeled All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to take part in series of events spread across a course of 3 days. A remarkable feature unique to BAJA SAEINDIA is the adoption of a new theme every year. Last year theme for BAJA 2015 was “Beyond Boundaries “ which focused on being ready to accept international participation and matching international standards in all domains of the event and being ready for an unparalleled competition in the world.

This year the theme for BAJA 2016 is “Passion to Podium” which is representative of the enthusiasm with which the students build their vehicle with in a firm view to achieve a podium finish.

In this two days event, the registered teams will be scrutinized for their knowledge and capability to participate successfully in the main event. For the first time, in addition to the presentation, a written test is introduced for all the participating teams, which will carry equal weightage in their final selection. The evaluation process contains two elements which are Written Test and Presentation which will test every Participant’s knowledge on Rulebook and General mechanical & automobile engineering questions. Based on the performance in Virtual BAJA, the teams would be selected for participation in the main event to be held in Indore. The attendees of the event will also witness the restored vintage cars by Chandigarh Vintage & Classic Car Club and Gerrari Offroaders (Chandigarh) will showcase their modified vehicles.

The Virtual BAJA SAEINDIA conference at Chitkara witnessed the eminent personalities like Dr. K C Vora (Deputy Director and Head, ARAI Academy, Pune), Mr. Subodh Y Morye (Senior Manager – Executive Directors office, Mahindra and Mahindra), Dr. Sudhir Gupte Prof. and Head – Automobile Engineering – A D Patel Institute of Technology, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Mr. Ravi Kharul (Chief Technical Officer, Endurance) along with Dr. Madhu Chitkara (Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University). They shared how over the years Baja has grown in popularity and has become a bigger event nationally. It serves as a platform for young engineering talent to showcase their skills and acquire a real life experience while over coming obstacle and challenges. The 9th edition of BAJA SAEINDIA in the coming year 2016 will be altogether a different scenario in terms of number of participants as well as level of vehicles.

Speaking at the conference, Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University said, “It’s a proud moment for us that Chitkara University is hosting this event. Undoubtedly, this event will help in producing talented automotive engineers as this is the platform where they can prove their designing skills, fight with the odds/challenges and come out as a winner”.