All-terrain Buggy by VIT Team Zooms in 3rd at International Car Design Event
VELLORE: A 25-member team from the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) - Kshatriya, has won third place for the third consecutive year, in the BAJA (pronounced ‘Ba-ha’) Society of Automotive Engineering Motor-sport design competition held at Pithambur, Indore in Madhya Pradesh recently.
VIT Chancellor, Vishwanathan, while congratulating the team, said that interest and motivation of the students, faculty and support by the university both financially and morally, helped.
The BAJA SAE competition is an intercollegiate competition in which students from over 300 international and Indian universities take part on an annual basis on designing and building future off-road buggies for the harshest of terrains.
The object of the competition is to simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges with “patience determination and perseverance” according to its manifesto.
VIT team captain, Nasit Malay R, said, “The team is readied every year on the basis of written tests comprising both technical and aptitude questions. This is followed by personal interviews and several rounds of individual tasks.
The team consists of students from the first, second and third year engineering courses in the university.” The best teams are sorted out on the basis of design, practical ability and innovations with per
Shrey Ostwal, another member of the team said that the first place was won by student team of College of Engineering of Pune, second place by Y Patil College, also in Pune.
Teams begin work on the designing phase in early April, making a unique buggy each year. This is followed by market-surveys and the manufacturing phase. The final phase concludes with a month-long testing of the vehicle to test its design parameters and overall performance for the ultimate BAJA test at the event, Ostwal added.
The team’s transmission engineer Sayan Karmakar, explained that the competition is divided into two stages - static and dynamic. The static event comprises technical inspection to verify whether the vehicle stands according to the rule book specifications.
The dynamic event comprises acceleration tests, hill-climbing and manoeuverability tests. Four-hour endurance races on a specially designed tracks which feature muddy terrain, water logged tracks, and special bridges ensures both the vehicle, the driver and the team as a whole are put through their paces and judged accordingly.