The SAE Mini Baja® competition originated at the University of South Carolina in 1976, under the direction of Dr. John F. Stevens. In the 30 years since that time, the Mini Baja Series has grown to become a premier engineering design series for university teams. The Mini Baja design competition is comprised of three regional competitions that expose students to real-life engineering design processes and the challenges that are associated with them. There are Mini Baja competitions held in the United States as well as internationally in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Korea. The U.S. SAE Mini Baja competition is divided into the West, Mid-West and East regional competitions. Participating students must design and build an off-road vehicle that can withstand rugged outdoor terrain. Students gain practical experience in aspects of fundraising, engineering design and the fabrication of a complete design.

The object of the competition is to provide SAE student members with a challenging project that involves the planning and manufacturing tasks found when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Teams compete against one another to have their design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm. Students must function as a team to design, build, test, promote and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, but also to generate financial support for their project and manage their educational priorities.

Our goal for 2008 is to design and manufacture an efficient, award-winning machine.