April 10, 1998 04/10/98 CONTACT:Margie Yu,Public Affairs Asst.(323) 343-3047 Calendarof Events Cal State L.A. Students to Participate in Mini-Baja West CompetitionLos Angeles, California -- April 10, 1998 -- From Thursday, April 16 to Saturday, April 18, the award-winning Cal State L.A. Mini-Baja team will travel to El Paso, Texas to participate in the 1998 Mini-Baja West, an intercollegiate competition designed to stimulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. In 1996, the Cal State L.A. team won first place for their work in designing, building and racing an all-terrain vehicle. The University finished ahead of vehicles from Cal Poly Pomona, USC, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The Cal State L.A. engineering and technology students who will travel to El Paso, Texas to participate in this year's competition are Jose Barragan (Los Angeles), Jaime Garcia (Los Angeles), Christopher Gonag (Los Angeles), Rafael Martinez (Los Angeles), Raul Sanchez (South El Monte), Robert Seminario (Pasadena), Ubaldo Medina (Culver City), and student team leader Jorge Lopez (Commerce). Other Cal State L.A. students who will be involved in the competition include Ana Maria Sevilla (Pasadena-business major), Eric Gama (Los Angeles-physics major), and Ignacio Villa (Los Angeles-mathematics major). The team's faculty advisor was Mechanical Engineering Professor Lih-Min Hsia, and the technical advisors were Dan Roberto and Bruce Fischer. At the competition, each Mini-Baja team will design, build, promote and race a prototype of a four-wheel, single seat, off-road recreation vehicle intended for sale to the non-professional, weekend, off-road enthusiast. The team is to have its design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm. The vehicle must be safe, easily transported, easily maintained, and fun to drive. It should be able to negotiate rough terrain without damage. All of the vehicles will be powered by Briggs & Stratton 5.97 kw (8 horsepower) engines. Briggs & Stratton supports the competition through the generous donation of the engine to each team. Since 1976 the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has sponsored a series of contests for university engineering students with the assistance of Briggs & Stratton Corporation of Milwaukee. This year more than 150 colleges and universities from the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Mexico will participate in the Mini-Baja competitions. For more information on the Mini-Baja West competition, call (323) 343-4490. # # #
