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First ‘women-only’ team from Pune to participate at international Baja event
Baja is an intercollegiate competition where undergraduate students from different colleges from across the world participate to design and build off-road cars
Cummins College of Engineering sends first all-women team from India to participate in the Baja 2019 competition in the US, held to design and build off-road cars
There is no putting brakes on the skills of a woman and this has been yet again proven by a 12-member team from the Cummins College of Engineering for women, who will become the first women-only team from India to participate at an international Baja event, to be held in Cookville, Tennesse, US on April 11.
Baja is an intercollegiate competition run by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) where undergraduate students from different colleges from across the world participate to design and build off-road cars.
Cummins College of Engineering for Women’s Baja team is the first all-women team to represent India at the Baja event. As per my knowledge, it is also very likely that this team is the only ‘all-women’ team among the participating teams at this event. Our college is proud of their work,” said Gautam Chandekar, faculty advisor, SAE Baja international 2019.
Team Zenith, as they prefer to call themselves, is all geared up to showcase their prowess behind the wheel of their All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV), called Armour, rugged yet refined, at the international event. “The goal of this event is to design, build and race off-road vehicles that can withstand the harshest elements of rough terrain. We are the official Baja team of Cummins College, and have also participated in the Baja 2019 event. We have been participating in the Baja events since the last seven years,” said Komal Salgar, Captain, transmission system.
Salgar, who is in the final year of BE Mechanical at Cummins College, added, “We are a team of 25 students from all engineering streams (automobile enthusiasts from mechanical engineering department, electronics and telecommunication department and instrumentation and control department) working together on this project. Due to financial restraints only 12 of us are going to attend the international event.”
The team had studied and designed this ATV, but their first hurdle was to prove their mettle in the virtual round which was held in July 2018.
“We had to present our car design and also face a question-answer round to check the team’s understanding of the automobile sector. After successfully clearing all the categories of the event held at Chitkara University, Chandigarh from July 12- 14, 2018, we ranked 14th all over India amongst 400 teams which had participated in the first phase and 120 teams finally qualified for the Pithampur-main event,” said Pallavi Deshmukh, third year mechanical engineering student who handles the brake system of the ATV.
Then, the team finished manufacturing the ATV by July 2018 and tried their best to maintained the symmetry of the vehicle and reduce other errors. “We really were tensed when the rigorous testing phase commenced. There were acceleration tests, brake tests, manoeuvrability events, suspension traction events and the four-hour endurance race in the testing phase, but the team had already rigorously tested the vehicle in all the aspects and prepared for the national event, which was held in Pithampur,” said Shivani Rajopadhaye, who is the driver of the ATV.
Their ATV weighs 159.6 kg which is at least 18 kg less than the weight of the ATV presented previous year. “We had completed 11 lapses and were worried about surviving the endurance race. But we won the cost presentation and were ranked 38th all over India and also ranked 5th in sales presentation at the Baja SAEINDIA 2019 event,” said Shivani.
Meanwhile, Cummins College established under the Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Samstha (MKSSS), is the first all-women engineering college in India established in 1991 with support from the Cummins Diesel (India) Foundation.
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