MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Engines roared and dirt flew as engineering students from across the world gathered this weekend at the Marana Pumpkin Patch for the SAE Baja International Design Competition.
The four-day event saw college teams race off-road recreational vehicles they spent the past year designing and building, combining innovation with hands-on learning. This included teams from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, along with students from Brazil, Mexico, Canada and universities across the nation.
Now in its 49th year, the Baja SAE International is more than just a race. It challenges students to solve real-world engineering problems while fostering collaboration and technical skill.
“They have to design, build, and then race their cars,” said Josh Spivey, organizer of Baja SAE International. “It’s really engineering-minded, but it’s all about teamwork, learning how to do some real-world skills and having some fun.”
Each team is given specifications, such as motor types, that they have to adhere so that no team is given an advantage by simply adding a larger motor, according to Spivey. They are tasked with finding creative solutions to make their vehicles faster and more agile.
The competition also serves as a unique networking opportunity, giving participants the chance to connect with fellow students and industry professionals. For Anish Khot, a graduate student from Case Western Reserve University, the event was a chance to share insights and overcome challenges with like-minded peers.
“When you come here, you get to talk to like-minded peers about their cars, what challenges they’ve overcome and the problems they’ve faced,” Khot said.
Khot says the team experienced a “few hiccups” at the start of the race, but that their vehicle was placing first in the race at the time we spoke. However, with the endurance race lasting four hours, he said that could change.
Uzair Syed, another member of Case Western Reserve University team, described seeing the team’s car in action as “cathartic” after nearly a year designing and building the vehicle. The team builds a new car each year, adjusting and innovating the design each time around.
Khot said the team spent June through December designing the vehicle, figuring out issues with the drive train and frame geometry. Syed then took the lead on adding electrical components to boost the vehicle’s capabilities.
This year, Khot says the vehicle was equipped with 23-inch tires, a wider diameter than previous years to allow for more control on the desert track. With the school located in Ohio, Khot says the desert conditions differed from the mud-laced tracks back home, but they got practice during a competition in California the previous month.
Students from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, echoed the value of the experience, emphasizing the importance of testing their vehicles in competition and applying lessons learned in future designs.
“The competition itself is a great way to test out your car and learn from it for the next year,” said Mayam Asad.
“It’s hard to get an experience like this before you actually enter the workforce,” added teammate Zac Velchi. “To have this opportunity as a student to learn good engineering practices and to learn from a bunch of teams and have sponsors—it’s just a great experience.”
Velchi also says that the Baja experience gives aspiring engineers a leg up in the auto industry. “You find when you have the Baja tag on your resume, companies tend to perk because they know what that means,” he said. “They know that we have a bit of engineering experience and not starting from the ground up.”
Beyond the technical lessons, the event also helps reshape perceptions of what engineering involves.
“Everyone thinks of engineering as math and numbers and being stuck behind a computer,” Spivey explained. “There is all that portion, but it leads to all this kind of stuff. This shows there’s a lot more to engineering than what you think.”
This year marked the first time Marana hosted the competition, and organizers say the event provided an economic boost to the local community, with hotels and restaurants seeing increased business. They hope to bring the event back to Marana in future years.
Spivey says past competitions were located in more remote areas, but that Marana offered hotels and other accommodations, making the process easier without having to set up tents for the competitors.
He says the event also provides students with access to professionals in the auto industry. “We’re bringing in companies from across the country and local so they can meet with these companies and potentially get job opportunities,” he said. “All these students’ skills go back to the automotive industry. So it’s a great way to expose them to what careers could look like and all the aspects of engineering.”
More information about the Baja SAE International Design Competition is available on the organization’s website.
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Joel Foster is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who previously worked as an English teacher in both Boston and the Tucson area. Joel has experience working with web, print and video in the tech, finance, nonprofit and the public sectors. In his off-time, you might catch Joel taking part in Tucson's local comedy scene. Share your story ideas with Joel at joel.foster@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
