Team Report

BOSCH Team STRATOS, BIT

· Team STRATOS is the team formed during the month of March 2009 by the
students of Bangalore Institute of Technology primarily to take part in the BAJA
SAEINDIA 2010 Competition.

· The team is named Stratos as a tribute to the legendary rally car, Lancia Stratos
which won all the rally championships in which it took part during the 70’s and 80’s.

· 20 experienced, skillful and dedicated students were hand-picked from the

185 member strong SAE-India B.I.T collegiate club members to form this team. It
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includes students from 2 , 3 and 4 year of the mechanical engineering branch of
our college.

· Team Stratos has students who are good with their automotive basics and the team
collectively has skills related to building a car, modeling (through Catia, Autocad,
Solid edge, Maya, ProE), analyzing (through ANSYS/ADAMS/IPG Carmaker),
marketing, managing (through MS Project), machine shop and many others.

· All the 20 members were inducted into the Baja team after following a
methodical and rigorous selection process which asked them to present an SOP and
solutions for the given problem statement. This process was authenticated by the team
faculty advisor (Dr.T.Jagadish, Professor).

· It is one of the only 4 colleges from Karnataka and the only one to represent
Bangalore.

· The Team members also formed the core of the enormously successful SAE-BIT
Collegiate Club. It has the reputation for being the model for all other SAE Clubs.

· Members of the team have also been engaged in many automotive projects as a
part of their studies.

· Good functional division of work is our forté. Once the divisions were formed,
the team members were given choices to select their division of interest and work
on that basis. This structure was most prevalent in the design stages. During the
fabrication stages, the roles were modified with team members regrouping to complete
different aspects of the car.

· Real-life Practical exposure is what BAJA Participation is all about. We can now
safely say that we do justice to the title we possess, ‘mechanical engineers’. We have
in the process become more industry ready.
 · And it’s not just about instilling the engineer in us, per se. It is like undergoing a
complete practical course in management, design, and professionalism, to name a
few. Making each one of us ‘complete’ individuals.

Team Members: (All from B.E.-Mechanical)

From 2006-2010 batch:

1) Manish O. Team Captain

2) Mokshith.S.N. Design Head & Co-Driver

3) Vishwas.M.S. Race Engg. Head & Main Driver

4) Bipul Kumar Singh Technical Head

5) Arpit Narendra Financial Head

6) Sundar Ramnath B.R. Fabrication Head

7) Karthik N. Marketing Head

8) Khushroo Siraj Inventory Manager

9) Somaiah K. A. Design Engineer #1

10) Sushant Shetty Design Engineer #2

11) Harisha B.S. Technical Engineer #1

12) Febin K. V. M. Technical Engineer #2

13) Parno Roy Choudhury Technical Engineer #3

14) Gautam Desai Race Engineer #1

15) Kundan Lal Race Engineer #2

16) Ashish Baidyanathan Marketing Exec. #1

From 2007-2011 batch:

17) Prashant K.J. Marketing Exec. #2

18) Rajesh S. Design Engineer #3

 19) Rahul B. Maintenance Exec.

From 2008-2012 batch:

20) Raunak Sheth Marketing Exec. #3

Faculty advisor :

Dr. T. Jagadish, Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engg., BIT.

BAJA SAEINDIA 2010 Competition

— The Baja SAE (pronounced ‘BA-HA S.A.E’) is an International level
competition where engineering students as a team are tasked to design, build, test,
promote and race an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe challenges of rough
terrain. Hence testing their engineering skills to the limit.

— The vehicle has to be built according to several strictly enforced standards

of fabrication, design etc and will have to undergo a series of stringent static and
dynamic tests before competing in the main endurance event.

— The SAE Mini Baja competition originated at the University of South Carolina
in 1976. Since then the competition has grown to six competitions: three in North
America and one each in Brazil, Korea and South Africa with over 500 entries.

— With the growth of the series, corporations have come to recognize that
students with Baja SAE on their resumes are premier candidates for their
engineering positions.

— BAJA was started in India in 2007 with the event being held in Pithampur,
Indore in December 2007. It was subsequently held in January 2009 with 57 teams
contending.
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— In its 3 year, The BAJA SAEINDIA - ASIA 2010 was conducted from 29
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-31 January 2010 at the NATRAX off-road race track facility, under aegis of
NATRIP in Pithampur.

Event Outcome
· We scored 496 points in total out of 600. Good for a team that didn't complete
endurance due to an unexpected gearbox mounting failure. Our all India ranking was
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36 place.

· Our car was used to inaugurate the event as our team had won laurels for having
the best Design Report among the 80 teams. The unveiling was performed by Mr.
Arvind Jadhav, The Union Minister of Heavy Industries, the most prominent amongst
the guests of honour.
 · We’’ve learnt a lot from the 5 days of the event. We now know what matters,
what doesn't. Now, we are more equipped to tackle future BAJA and similar
events.

· On the BAJA 2010 HR meet(Placement drive) that followed the event, various
team members got selected through the rounds in companies like JK Tyre, MSC,
Mahindra&Mahindra, Anand automotive systems, Cummins, etc. Finally 5 of us got
placed, receiving a total package in excess of Rs.16Lac.

· The pristine quality of work was so much apparent in the car that we were asked
time and again whether we had received help from the R&D unit of BOSCH.

· The general belief was that the car was got done by professionals. Partly true..
we think of ourselves as the professionals!

BIAE ATV University Challenge

· The BIAE(Bangalore Intl' Auto Expo) ATV University Challenge took place
at Palace Grounds, Bangalore from the 11th to 14th of this March 2010.

· Our car was performing in the endurance run against some of our most fierce
BAJA 2010 competitors .

· We had carried out some serious testing of our car at DIRT MANIA, Kanakpura
Road. We did have some issues like problems with the front knuckle, the starter, the
carburetor, etc. But we knew that it was all a part of the game and nothing that we
couldn’t sort out.

· The 30 lap (21Km) endurance race was held on the 14th March 2010. The track
was more grueling than the BAJA track because of the steep inclines and dense slush.

Event Outcome

· We finished the race as the FIRST RUNNERS UP at the ATV University

Challenge.

· We received a trophy and a sum of Rs. 30,000/- as the prize for winning 2nd
place.
Media Attention

· A documentary on our team, and hence our college, was aired as a part of the
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show “MAD ABOUT CARS” on Zee business on 18 April 2010 at 9.30pm.

· A short take was also shown about us on the CNN-TV18 channel as a part of the
automotive show “OVERDRIVE”.

· We have also been featured in the local daily, ‘Deccan Herald’ in the section
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‘Metrolife’ on 22 January, 2010

· An article on us also appeared in the AUTOCAR India January 2010 edition in

the BAJA 2010 supplementary.

What lies ahead for the team

· The team has wowed to stay together till the end of our courses and then pass
on the baton to our juniors. Team STRATOS will reappear at successive BAJA events
and create more waves.

· We plan to take our car to an off-road test-track again and see what it is truly
capable of.

· We are also expecting similar ATV based events in the near future and are
hoping to win those too.

Acknowledgements

Our car wouldn’t have sprung to life, if not for the crucial support of our sponsors:

· Title Sponsor:

BOSCH Ltd., Adugodi, Bangalore.

· Associate sponsors:
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1. Laser Services, Pune (For financial support. Our 1 major sponsor.)
 2. Lucas-TVS Auto-Electricals Ltd., Chennai (For financial and technical
support)
3. Mr. A. K. Sasindran, India Bulls, Gurgaon (For personal financial
contribution.)
4. Magod Lasers, Bangalore (For laser cutting services)
5. Burma Automobiles, Bangalore (For financial assistance)
6. Maskeenia fasteners (For special SAE graded fasteners made to our
specifications)
7. ACTIVE Ltd.(ANSYS Partner)
8. Bangalore Machinery Manufacturers(BMM) Ltd. (For technical support)
9. Down Town Works (For technical support in making custom exhaust)
10. Pacer Yamaha (For technical support)
11. Dirt Mania (For technical support and permission to use their
dirt track)

Support from college

· Most of all, the entire management, teaching and non-teaching faculty of

our esteemed institution, BANGALORE INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY, who have had the greatest role in making our car to come
to life.

· The management is responsible for the majority of the financial

assistance.

· Our wonderful lab attenders and foremen, who have unconditionally

helped us in the fabrication phase.

· The we are deeply indebted to the institute’s governing body,

Vokkaliggara Sangha has put a lot of faith in us with the garage facility and
financial aid at crucial times.

· This makes each and every one of us proud to be a BITan.

Thank You!