(http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/032014BajaCar06.jpg)Devon Jones, Chris Burgess, Josh Tempel, Marcus Dueñezand Mariusz Sawicki pose with their Baja car frame at the

UAA Design Studio. Photo by Philip Hall/University of AlaskaAnchorage

(http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/032014BajaCar07-

corbin.jpg)UAA machinist Corbin Rowe used a lathe and other

equipment at University Lake Annex to machine parts UAA’sBaja team designed. Photo by Philip Hall/University of Alaska

Anchorage

Building a better BajaMarch 26, 2014

Zachary Garcia clicked a file on his computer screen, displaying a three-dimensional image of two mechanical gadgets.

“I’ve invested nearly 50 hours on this,” the UAA engineering student said of thegadgets—virtual versions of high-carbon steel parts destined for a single-seatdune buggy-like off-road vehicle he and others on UAA’s Baja team are creating.“This part holds the caliper on. I’m trying to figure out how to bolt it onto thebearing carrier, here, which involves complicated cuts. We can do it, but it takestime.”

Every second counts, now, because the finished Baja vehicle must be ready April3 to be shipped to El Paso, Texas, for the Baja SAE competition—one of threeSAE International Collegiate Design Series competitions scheduled this spring inthe U.S. The Baja showdown is scheduled for April 24-27 at the University ofTexas at El Paso.

Stimulation of innovation

Teams from universities all over the world compete every year, testing their carson outdoor tracks and challenges to see which Bajas are the fastest, strongest, most maneuverable, most innovative.

Josh Tempel and Josh Lazaro lead UAA’s Baja team of mechanical and electrical engineering students. The other Baja teammembers are Sivisko Bernard, Chris Burgess, Taryn Byrd, Marcus Dueñez, Zachary Garcia, Devon Jones, Halvor Norris, LowellPerry, Buck Polya, Mariusz Sawicki and Frazer Tee.

Corbin Rowe, UAA’s machinist, isn’t a member of the Baja team but he performs a crucial task: translating the students’SolidWorks renderings into steel and aluminum Baja parts using a manual mill, three-axis computer numeric control mill, lathe andother equipment housed in a machine shop a few steps away from the computer lab at UAA’s University Lake Annex.

“We’ve been lucky to have a machinist on UAA’s staff here for us to askquestions,” Zachary said. “That’s been 50 percent of my learning experience. Inschool, you spend so much time on computers, in virtual reality or crunchingnumbers. But you have to make sure you designed a part that’s possible tomachine, that it will work in the real world.”

UAA has raced four times at previous Baja SAE annual competitions. This year’sUAA Baja team has a $25,000 budget, which includes the cost of materials, labor,shipping of the Baja car and transporting the team to El Paso. Briggs & Strattondonates 10-horsepower, four-cycle, air-cooled stock engines to every Bajaparticipant. The team buys complicated components that would take too muchtime to custom make, such as brake calipers, which must be specially machinedto withstand pressures within and forces passing through them, and the CVT(Continuously Variable Transmission), which uses a complex system of springsand weights to transfer the engine’s output power to the transaxle.

“These things are heavily engineered by outside companies and it’s in our bestinterest to focus on custom engineering what we think we can get done in the limited amount of time we have,” Zachary said.

Local businesses have donated resources. Greer Tank and Welding Inc. used their water-jet cutting technology to cut out bracketsand other Baja parts, for free. Superior Machine & Welding provided aluminum for the Baja team. “If we were to buy it, it couldcost upwards of $200,” Zachary said. Other sponsors include UAA School of Engineering, Alaska Native Science and EngineeringProgram (ANSEP), UAA Club Council, UAA Concert Board, BP, UAA Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, Carlile

(http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/040214BajaCar03.jpg)UAA’s Baja Car team poses with the finished car on April 2,before preparing it for shipping the following day. Left to right,Marcus Dueñez, Chris Burgess, Josh Lazaro, Taryn Byrd,

Frazer Tee, Devon Jones, Mariusz Sawicki, Josh Tempel and,in the car, Halvor Norris. Photo by Philip Hall/University of

Alaska Anchorage

(http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/032014BajaCar12-

sparky.jpg)UAA engineering studentChris Burgess slices analuminum sheet for UAA’sBaja car. Photo by PhilipHall/University of Alaska

Anchorage

Transportation Systems, AMC Engineers, Stinebaugh & Company, Larson Properties, Schafer Gearworks, Polaris, A2DSledworks, Beadedstream, P3 Forge, Alaska Power Sports/Marita Sea & Ski, Action Sign & Graphics and Schlumberger OilfieldServices.

JoAnna Tomuro, college recruiting advisor for BP Alaska, says the Baja projectdirectly aligns with BP’s campus strategy for UAA.

“We like to support student professional associations or projects where studentsget to take their academic learning and put it into practical application,” she wrote.“UAA’s Baja Team is a great mix of engineering students who have done afabulous job at representing UAA and Alaska in competition!”

Taking engineering to the track

Some of the Baja team members are completing frame assembly and other tasksat the UAA Engineering Design Studio, adjacent to University Center. The studiocontains 4,300 feet of lab space and is equipped with drills, table saws, sanders,grinders, planers, tube and pipe benders, plasma cutters and welding machines.

“The biggest innovations,” Josh Tempel said, “have beenredesigning the suspension so it’s tougher; the drivetrain,to have better gearing; and the frame, to be smaller. Thebiggest benefit of this project is understanding howengineering concepts apply to the real world.”

Participants in the Baja project earn three independent-study credits. At the beginning of the fall semester, theysplit into teams that would, independently, design thecar’s frame, suspension and power train.

“It’s been a learning process for all of us,” Zachary said.“Building it has been very tricky. We designed with a teambut during the build, the teams had to integrate together.We’ve had to manage time, prioritize parts that had to bebuilt. Some parts just take a couple of minutes—brackets—but there are others that take time. You have tocollaborate and make sure you don’t have interferenceissues with other people’s parts.”

Zachary’s rear caliper mount, for example, consumed more than 50 hours of design time because it had to fit over existing partsand withstand stresses the Baja will experience when it careens over steep hills on bumpy and tilting terrain, speeds around tightturns and hurtles through four hours of endurance laps.

“You take this guy and mount it to this bearing, which sits inside here,” Zachary said, using his computer to move around the on-screen caliper mount and bearing carrier. “You can’t change the size of this and we’re trying to do this without breaching this innerdiameter.”

Participating in the Baja competition cultivates skills students will use after graduation, on the job, said Dr. Jeff Hoffman, theteam’s faculty adviser.

“They’re learning about money issues, timeline issues and serious logistics issues that are all about Alaska,” Hoffman said.“Ninety percent of it is learning to work as a team. When there are disappointments, there’s no finger-pointing. They put theirheads together and come up with a solution. That will take them a long way in life.”

Team members must use differential calculus and physics to analyze shear stress, impact forces, damping coefficiencies,tolerances and braking force while constructing and testing their Baja cars.

(http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/032014BajaCar08-

zg.jpg)Halvor Norris, left, and Zachary Garcia work on SolidWorksdesigns for Baja car parts at the University Lake Annex.Photo by Philip Hall/University of Alaska Anchorage

“I should finish the design today,” Zachary said. “I’ll probably be here pretty late.I’ve been putting in eight hours a day on top of school. This makes me appreciatethe engineering it takes in the car I’m driving here.”

Written by Tracy Kalytiak, UAA Office of University Advancement.

(//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) "Building a better Baja" is licensedunder a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

(//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

University of Alaska Anchorage - University Advancement 3211 Providence Dr. Suite 236 - Anchorage, AK 99508