OFF ROAD, ON TRACK
Students move full speed ahead with Nova Baja racing team
By Baily Keeley ’27 CE
It might be surprising that a Civil Engineering student is president of the newest racing team in the College of Engineering, Nova Baja. But between the appealing structure of a Baja car, my interest in project management and my love of monster trucks, Nova Baja has been a great club for me to participate in and lead.
Nova Baja is an Engineering student-run organization where we design and build a Baja-style off-roading racing car. Like NovaRacing, the College’s popular Formula SAE team, Nova Baja competes through a program sponsored by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers. These events bring together college teams from across the country to design, build and race prototype vehicles.
Nova Baja was brought to life after David Escobar- Huertas ’25 ME, ’26 MSME completed his senior capstone project on the suspension of a mini Baja vehicle. He decided to start up the Baja SAE team and build the entire car, and the presidency was passed on to me after he completed his undergraduate studies.
What drew me to Nova Baja as a Civil Engineering student was the structural side of a Baja car. These small, off-roading vehicles have components like forces, load transfer and structural stability. In this club, you can use Civil Engineering skills such as steel structure design, weld inspecting, safety management, load distribution and so much more.
Our team utilizes engineering software including SolidWorks, Ansys and MATLAB to design the Baja car, and we manufacture parts in the Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop in Drosdick Hall. We are even welding our own chassis, led by our vice president, Bradley Berde ’27 CpE. Our biggest goal this year was to develop a fully manufactured car to compete at the Baja SAE 2026 Competition in New York in June.
The experience of starting a club has been exciting. For an engineering club where you are fully designing from scratch and learning as you go, it has taken a lot of research, meetings and redrafting to get to where we are now. We have an awesome team of about 20 active members who make it a lot of fun. We have also received support from the NovaRacing team, for which we are so grateful.
Being the president of Nova Baja has taught me so much, including how to manage people and deadlines and how to get individuals to come together for a common goal. I have learned how to design a vehicle from the ground up. It takes a lot of work and patience, but it is very rewarding to see your designs come to life. I can’t wait to see what the future of Nova Baja holds.
Baily Keeley is a junior from Media, Pa., majoring in Civil Engineering. She is president, front suspension lead and business lead of Nova Baja.
Next: Alumni News
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