Instron employees taking a ride in the student-designed car

For the Baja SAE Collegiate Design Series, students from across the globe design, build, and race off-road vehicles in competitions around the United States. Young engineers are challenged to build an off-road vehicle with open wheels and one-passenger seating. For a year, they work together creating the cars and being tested in an industrial market, where they need to promote and finance their projects.

The Northeastern Baja team focuses on endurance and high-performance in the Baja SAE events. To get ahead the competition, this year's car featured handlebar steering and a six-speed manual transmission. Led by Dalton Colen and Matt Nussbaum, the group finished 8th in the Baja SAE competition in Illinois. In each of the past three years, Northeastern has finished in the top ten for the endurance test and overall race at an event.

We wish them luck next year and hope they come back to visit!