Baja vehicle to be Showcased at UTEP

May 2, 2016

   

UTEP students working on a Baja vehicle.

   

In preparation for the 2016 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Baja Competition, UTEP's Baja SAE team will be hosting a showcase on Friday, May 6, at 2:00 pm in Chemistry and Computer Science Courtyard. The showcase is free and open to the public.

During the showcase, attendees will have the opportunity to see time-lapse photos of the car's construction, and a design presentation. After presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to see the team's car in action as they test the car in the arroyo behind the Engineering building. The team will also bring in their sponsors and partners and share with them their accomplishments, as well as thank them for their support.

"The Baja SAE Competition is a great way to put the things we're learning in our classes to use," said Regina Lamonica, design team captain. "The entire vehicle has to be student designed and built, so we get to work with out parts from the concept all the way through testing. It's a lot of work, and the team put a lot of time and effort into this car."

The Baja SAE competition challenges students to design, plan, and manufacture a safe off-road vehicle that can maneuver a variety of obstacles in a rugged environment. The design competition parallel's the actual process of bringing a new product to the consumer market by having teams present their design and have their entry accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm.

Approximately 100 collegiate teams from around the world will come together in Gorman, California to participate in the Baja SAE Competition from May 19-22. The University of Texas at El Paso's Baja SAE team, Mad Pete Motorsports, is comprised of Regina Lamonica, Daniel Ruiz, Oscar Chavez, Brenda Solis, Kevin Lau, Erik Ortega, Alberto Martinez, Alai Lopez, Niral Patel, Gabriel Mena, Edgar Calleja, Daniel Hutton, Derek Ochoa, Michael Brink, Eduardo Grajeda, Homero Sanchez, and Andres Adame.

The Mad Pete Motorsports team has worked all year to design the car for this year's Baja SAE competition. They designed the parts manually and with the use of Solidworks software, and fabricated them in the Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop. Alongside building their car, the team has been compiling their design and sales presentations to pitch in California.