{"id":812,"date":"2013-01-15T09:25:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=812"},"modified":"2017-07-28T10:07:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T14:07:46","slug":"consumed-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/01\/consumed-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumed by Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"baja\"<\/a>
MUD IN HIS FACE, BUT NO DISGRACE: \u201cIt\u2019s my varsity team,
it\u2019s my fraternity, it\u2019s my social network,\u201d says Andrew Kelly \u201913,
who isn\u2019t afraid to get dirty for his Baja team. (Photo by Tony Marble)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Adam Baumgartner \u201910 was studying mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins, the 6-foot-8-inch basketball player served as de facto recruiter for Hopkins BajaSAE, an enthusiastic group of students who design and build single-seat off-road vehicles for national competitions. He remembers the team\u2019s current captain, Andrew Kelly \u201913, when Kelly was just a high school student.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew came to visit with pictures of a kit car he had worked on. It was a roadster, with some really advanced technical elements. Obviously, he was talented, and very bright,\u201d Baumgartner says.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor [Kevin] Hemker suggested I give him a call, [and] I remembered back to the experience I had being recruited for basketball. We always joke that Andrew was our first Baja recruit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baumgartner still serves as a chief recruiter, chief reunion planner, chief cheerleader, and chief networker for Hopkins Baja<\/a>, a loose group of about 30 alums, many of whom work in the automobile industry. In fact, last Labor Day weekend for the second year running, the Baja alums gathered on Homewood campus to attend the Grand Prix of Baltimore. \u201cIt\u2019s great. We get together, swap stories, and then get around to what we usually talk about \u2026 making cars run faster,\u201d Baumgartner says.<\/p>\n

Today, three Hopkins Baja alums, Baumgartner, Bobby Ng \u201907 (who was the group\u2019s first captain and convinced Baumgartner to join), and Peter Cremona- Simmons \u201912, now work for Honda R&D Americas Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Matt Blake \u201912, last year\u2019s captain who is back on campus pursuing a master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering, interned with Honda last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really expanding [at Honda], and we\u2019re working on exciting stuff,\u201d says Baumgartner. \u201cHopkins engineers are trained to think creatively and quickly, so they fit in here. Bobby helped me out, by referring me for my job, and I want to do the same. We consider it paying it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopkins Baja\u2014one of 230 teams competing in a collegiate design series sponsored by the national Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)\u2014was started in 2004 by freshmen Ng and David Chow \u201907. \u201cMy interest in automotive engineering really came from Baja,\u201d says Ng, now a body engineer at Honda.<\/p>\n

What makes Baja unique, he says, is that the vehicle is fabricated almost entirely by hand. \u201cEverything is a one-off part, everything is handmade,\u201d he says. The program also is student- run, with faculty oversight, primarily for safety and fiscal matters. \u201cBaja relies on the motivation and interest of the students,\u201d says Ng, adding that cars can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 to build.<\/p>\n

The group raises its own funds by tapping family members, corporate sponsors, and alumni donors. Last year Baumgartner pitched in $1,000, and Honda matched the gift through its corporate matching program. This year, he\u2019s hoping to leverage other Honda employees\u2019 donations and kick in as much as $4,000 for the team.<\/p>\n

Kelly, this year\u2019s captain, is gunning for a good year. The Hopkins team has improved its competition performance each year. In the 2012 Eastern contest, the team placed ninth overall in a field of 105, for their best performance ever. The team also was dubbed \u201cmost improved\u201d by the judges, says Kelly.<\/p>\n

Each car contains a 10-horsepower motor\u2014suitable to operate a snow blower\u2014that uses 87-octane gasoline, with an approximate maximum speed of 40 miles per hour on a flat surface. The goal, says Kelly, is to design the lightest, most durable car around that motor.<\/p>\n

The annual four-day Baja competition, held regionally each spring, consists of numerous events, such as acceleration and hill climbing, and an obstacle course to assess suspension and tracking. \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous test for the vehicle,\u201d Ng says. \u201cIt takes a lot of effort to finish well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s involvement with the Baja team at Hopkins\u2014currently numbering 28 students\u2014is allconsuming. \u201cIt is my varsity team, it\u2019s my fraternity, it\u2019s my social network,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has defined my time at Hopkins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mud in his face, but no disgrace: \u201cIt\u2019s my varsity team, it\u2019s my fraternity, it\u2019s my social network,\u201d says Andrew Kelly \u201913, team captain for Hopkins Baja.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-currents","issue-winter-2013"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nConsumed by Cars - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/01\/consumed-cars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Consumed by Cars - 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