Baja SAE
Overview
I first joined my college's Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) team during my freshman year of college. Each year, we build and race ATV's against other colleges in the Baja SAE competition. I joined the team and got my hands dirty by taking the lead on designing the brake pedal assembly. This process led me through the entire product design cycle, starting with concept generation all the way to manufacturing the pedals with a CNC mill and testing them at competition. Through the Baja SAE team, I have also had experience with a wide range of automotive engineering fields and techniques. I learned how to use ANSYS explicit dynamics to simulate car crashes, designed my own frame in Solidworks, and got hands-on experience with manufacturing processes such as welding, machining, plasma cutting, composites, and tubing and sheet metal fabrication. I became treasurer in the second semester of my freshman year and managed budgets of approximately $10,000 per semester. During my senior year of college, I led the club as president, along with leading a senior design team in designing and building a 4WD drivetrain for the car.
4WD Drivetrain
For my senior design project, I worked with 3 other teammates in designing and manufacturing an 4WD drivetrain. For our final design, we used an off-the-shelf CVT, front differential and rear differential while manufacturing the central transfer case ourselves. The transfer case consisted of an aluminum case and cover, an input shaft assembly, output shaft assembly, and tensioner. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the majority of the club was not allowed on campus to build the rest of the car, but we were able to finish the powertrain and the base of the vehicle frame.
Pedal Assembly
The brake pedal assembly was the first project I worked on when I joined the Stevens Baja SAE team. Using a MATLAB script, I was able to determine the required pedal ratio in order to ensure that the driver can fully lock all four wheels (a competition requirement) with minimal pedal force. The design consisted of a machined pedal, an off-the-shelf balance bar, off-the-shelf master cylinders, a machined pedal mount, and a sheet metal master cylinder mount. The pedal assembly successfully lasted throughout the entire three day competition while providing enough braking force to pass brake check.
