Baja SAE Korea at Yeungnam Univ. ends on the 4th with the participation of 45 teams from 34 universities
Many attractions including the First-ever all-women's Team, 10th Grade Student Team of Daegu Science High School, and the Electric Vehicles Team
[August 4, 2012]

 Neither heat wave nor dust could stop the Youth's Need for Speed!

 The 2012 Baja SAE KOREA at Yeungnam Univ., where automobiles designed and manufactured by university students race, attracted 45 teams from 34 universities. It was held amidst an air of excitement at the Yeungnam University Gyeongsan Campus from the 1st to the 4th.

 The Baja SAE, which was first hosted in Korea by YU in 1996 with the goal of enhancing creativity and challenge-oriented spirits of engineering students, while integrating theory into practice, was certified by the US SAE(Society of Automotive Engineering) in 2001 and is an international competition, which is proceeded with according to the regulations of SAE.

 Celebrating its 17th anniversary this year, over 1,000 automobile fans including judges, volunteers and teams attended the competition, staying at YU for 4 days, and competed after a year-long preparation. On the 1st, the first day of the competition, vehicles transported from different parts of the country began arriving from 2pm. On the 2nd, teams began registration and conducted static tests from 9am. Static tests include tests on the vehicle's design, safety, uniqueness, convenience to drive, ease of maintenance, and mass production, and lasted until 7pm. In the evening, meetings were held to explain the rules and re-training was conducted for volunteers. The opening ceremony started at 9am on the third at the YU playground. Following the opening ceremony, dynamic tests on the mobility, acceleration, max speed, and braking force was performed at the playground. Rock crawling, which is in its fifth year, provided an interesting thing to see. In order to test the ability to send the engine's power, a 10-15m course was used to install rockwall obstacles in an oval shape with a width of 5m and height of 1.5m. The highest score goes to the team that passes this in the shortest amount of time. This is a difficult course that is hard even just to pass.

 On the last day on the 4th, the highlight of this competition, the endurance race, began at about 10am on a hill at the back of YU Gyeongsan Campus. Racers have to complete the 4km off-road track as many times as they can go around in a period of 3 hours. The race is suspended immediately when an vehicle breaks down or there is a crash. Once the maintenance team takes the vehicle off the track and to the pit outside, the race is resumed. Vehicles that are repaired by the maintenance team can return to the race whenever they are ready and begin racing again in the remaining amount of time. Teams that cannot complete the course are disqualified. Therefore, endurance races is not only used for judging the performance of the vehicles that were partially tested through static test and dynamic test, but is also a good opportunity to evaluate the teams' unity and quickness to solve problems. The teams participating in this year's race complete the endurance race, despite the sweltering heat and dust, thanks to the highly improved vehicle performance and capacities.

 After the four day event, the closing ceremony and awards ceremony was held at the YU playground at about 5pm. The 'Ja.Yeon.In' team of the Korea University of Technology and Education won overall championship. The first place team is given the Minister of Knowledge Economy award, winner's flag, trophy, and a prize money of 2 million won. Second place was given to the 'MIRACLE-Blue' team of Hanbat National University, who were awarded the Gyeongbuk Province Governor's award and a cash prize of 1.5 million won. Third place was taken by the 'Speed Violation Team' of Keimyung University winning the YU President's award and a prize money of 1 million won.

 This year, 'YU CMDM Team', which was the first women's team, was applauded by many for winning the max speed test, while also receiving the 'friendship award', and thus showing their 'girl power'. The 'STEAM' team, which was made up of 10th grade students of the Daegu Science High School, won the 'prospective talent award' and they vowed to become leaders of Korea's future automobile industry. The results of the competition will be reported to the entire world through the SAE homepage (www.sae.org) and publications.