Maybe you’ve seen our posters around campus. Maybe you came to our recruitment meeting last week. Maybe you ask yourself “why should I care?” Excellent question. Allow me to tell you.
First: hands-on, real life experience is much more important than grades in employers’ eyes, and Baja is a great way to build up your resume. Second: you will appreciate your time at Waterloo more if you get involved with student teams, plus you’ll make friends across years and disciplines. Third: we all have to do fourth-year design projects eventually, and Baja gives you ready-made projects once you get to 4A. Finally: driving! All team members get to drive the cars, and when you get home covered in mud from head to toe, you know it’s been a good day. If you agree with one or more of these reasons, Baja is for you!
The Waterloo Baja SAE team is a group of Waterloo Engineering students who design and build an off-road vehicle. We construct a new car every year, and compete against over one hundred teams from schools across North America in an annual SAE off-road Baja event. The Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition involves three days of testing, presentations, and race events that put our vehicle to the ultimate test. Events include speed and acceleration tests, hill climbs, mud bogs, rock crawls, and maneuverability challenges. The final event (and highlight of the competition) is a four-hour endurance race, with all the teams going head-to-head against each other. This year’s competition is June 8-11 in Peoria, Illinois.
The competition events are grueling and destructive. For us to do well, we need a car that is strong, lightweight, and cost efficient. That’s where YOU come in. Every year, we start with a 10-horsepower engine, and build a car around it. We construct every part of the vehicle; frame, drive train, suspension, steering, and body panels. The team goal is to have a fully completed and operational vehicle by February 28. There is a LOT of work to do between now and then. Many hours of machining, lathing, cutting, drilling, bolting, fastening, and assembling need to be done to meet this deadline, and we need many hands to help. No prior experience is necessary; we’ll train you on any equipment or tools you’re unfamiliar with, and by the end you’ll know your way around the Baja car blindfolded.
Still not convinced? Come by our Baja garage in the E5 Student Design Centre to see all the awesome stuff we’re up to! Someone is always there, and you can see the progress we’re making on the car. We’ll be more than happy to get you involved; just come talk to us! You can also check out www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~baja for tons of photos from past events. And if you have a specific question, you can contact us at baja@engmail.uwaterloo.ca.
You might think five years is a long time, but it will go by much faster than you think. Get involved with Baja, and you will have more than horrible exam marks and all-nighter assignments to remember your time at Waterloo. Remember: nothing stops Baja. What’s stopping you?
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