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Race to the Top!
Cornell University’s Baja Racing Team is an undergraduate-led engineering project team dedicated to designing and building the best off-road vehicle to compete in the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Collegiate Design Series. Since our founding in 2003, the collective innovation and work ethic of our members has grown into a winning culture, earning us top 5 finishes every year for the last 12 years. We elect to develop an entirely new model each year, both to hone our engineering skills and to remain competitive with a field of over 100 teams. Having made huge improvements over previous iterations, we are currently building our best car yet!
Cornell Baja 2023-2024
This year, our team consists of 52 students from 13 different majors who are placed onto 6 different subteams. We pride ourselves on our diversity, with a 50/50 ratio of women to men.
We are primed to return to all three Baja SAE competition events during 2024: the first is California in April, then Williamsport in May, and we will end our circuit with Michigan in the Fall. Perpetually in the pursuit of optimization, we have many exciting changes planned for our new car, TGXX. This year, we are completely revamping our four wheel drive system to make it more reliable and durable for continued use. We will be implementing fully custom hobbed bevel and spur gears as well as a custom dog clutch. The changes in our four wheel drive system have also allowed use to drop our center of gravity while still maintaining the same ground clearance, as it allowed us to move our heaviest components, the engine and the driver, down relative to the chassis. Finally we will be using carbon fiber shafts to drive our four wheel drive system as well as experimenting with carbon fiber half shafts to to drive our wheels.
About the Competition
Baja SAE challenges engineering students to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive rough terrain and water, ensuring power and efficiency all the while. Baja teams compete triannually, and each competition requires collegiate engineers to balance design and cost with performance under a strict set of safety guidelines. The competition is comprised of dynamic and static events, testing not only acceleration, endurance, and traction, but also design, cost efficiency, and commercial viability.
Each year, our research moves through three stages of review before our design is finalized: Preliminary Review, Critical Review, and Final Review. During this time, we’re also modifying our older cars, so we can test new designs on prior years’ vehicles. We move to the build phase following Final Review, and then it's all hands on deck; each Cornell Baja subteam, while working on their specialized projects, communicates with the rest of the team to ensure that integration is seamless. Each year, we continue to innovate and improve—rethinking and redesigning even the smallest components. Our unmatched work ethic and team culture create a passion for our car, and we think that passion really makes the difference.
Why Your Support Matters
A donation to our team will be a tremendous help to our lab space and manufacturing process, while simultaneously providing for our travel and housing costs during competitions. Because of higher travel costs associated with traveling to California for competition this year, your donations are especially appreciated. Your funds will also help us enhance the capabilities of our custom-built engine and transmission dynamometer and purchase sensors that are vital for testing and tuning. A donation will furthermore allow us to bring purchase state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, giving our team members the opportunity to gain familiarity with the tools that they will see in the industry.
Through our support network, we are afforded the opportunity to compete, honing our engineering skills with experience that simply can't be replicated in a lecture hall. Winning competitions with Cornell Baja instills confidence in our members, instilling in them the creativity and adaptability to succeed in their next steps. Our active Cornell Baja alumni network is a testament to this, boasting recent former team members at Anduril, Rivian, SpaceX, Capital One, Blackstone, Ridgeline, Google, and Neuralink, to name a few. We continually improve and optimize our cars, but also ourselves, so that we may thrive after graduation.
By donating to Cornell Baja Racing, you’ll help develop the engineers and leaders of the future.
Thank you for your support!
Visit our website to learn more: https://baja.mae.cornell.edu/
Facebook: facebook.com/CornellBajaRacing
Twitter: twitter.com/cubaja
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cornellbajaracing/
A $10 donation would go toward fundamental supplies, such as brushes, organizers, seals, gloves.
A donation of $25 would allow us to purchase high-quality fasteners including nuts, bolts, threaded inserts, and washers.
A $50 donation allows us to buy stock materials that are critical to building the frame, drivetrain, and suspension components of our car.
A $75 donation allows us to buy essential safety equipment such as eye protection, high-quality gloves, and welding safety gear
A donation of $100 will provide us with ball bearings, gears for our driveline, a CVT drive belt, and composite molding materials.
This donation will allow us to purchase specialized electronic components for our Data Acquisition (DAQ) System, which is critical for testing and the iterative design process.
A donation of $250 would significantly reduce the cost for one team member to be able to fly to California for our competition, which is an integral and rewarding experience for every member of our team.
A contribution of $500 will send a team member to competition, an integral and rewarding experience for every member of our team at the culmination of the academic year. We hope to have every member attend at least one competition to see the results of their countless hours of hard work over the course of the year.
A $1000 donation will provide lodging for our entire team at competition, where members can relax and revitalize after events but also prepare their strategy for the following days.
A donation of $2000 will fund the construction of our entire drivetrain.
A donation of $5,000 will be an immense benefit to the team. It could go towards funding the entire stock supply, every single flight to competition, all lodging and meal costs and competition registration fees, or advanced fabrication equipment.
A donation of $10,000 will greatly advance the progress of our team; it will cover the construction of our car while also providing state-of-the-art tools that we can use this year and for many years afterward. This donation will directly benefit generations of future engineers.
A generous donation of $15,000 would cover the entire team's flight tickets to California, allowing every member to see the culmination of our hard work and effort. We would be able to purchase higher-quality materials and machinery, and this investment into our engineering would support Baja Racing for years to come.