The Baja SAE Series challenges students at colleges and universities around the world to design and manufacture a single-seater, off-road vehicle while complying with an engine restriction and safety requirements.

This competition offers students a mentally stimulating project that includes handling such tasks as organization, preparation, fabrication and design for manufacturability.

Students learn how to work as a team in order to design, build and test a successful vehicle while working under strict guidelines.

The vehicles and teams are then challenged over a four-day event that includes a design presentation to judges from industry, and maneuverability and performance courses, along with a four-hour endurance race.

The cars are put through their paces.

Testing agility.

Kicking up some snow.

Performing on uneven terrain.

Looks pretty good.

Maybe a little more work… A snowbank is a common obstacle for any kind of vehicle during a Buffalo winter. Rescuing a vehicle driven by sophomore mechanical engineering major Ivan Ristow are David Zaretsky (right), a junior biomedical engineering major, and Eric Santelmo, a junior mechanical engineering major. Driving the vehicle on the left is sophomore mechanical engineering major Riley Pauldine.