UALR’s Trojan Racing Team is taking it off road for the May 29-31 Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) Baja SAE Collegiate Competition.

The team, composed of students in the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT), will be the only one from the state of Arkansas to compete in the Peoria, Ill. competition. In addition to the team and friends and family members, UALR’s Channel 62 will travel to Illinois to cover the event.

A preview of the coverage of the event can be seen on UALR’s YouTube site. KTHV Channel 11 also features a story and video:

Baja SAE consists of three regional competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are tasked to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain and sometimes even water.

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 not only 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.