On April 20, Formula One (F1) enthusiasts lined up along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. to catch a glimpse up close of F1’s engineering spectacle at the Red Bull Showrun D.C. GW’s Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) team took part in this adrenaline-packed event by driving their car down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of thousands of cheering spectators. The Red Bull team approached GW Baja to offer them this opportunity they couldn’t miss.
Shelby Pullen, 4WD lead/chief engineer and junior Mechanical Engineering major, pushed the group to accept the offer, stating, “To see a car that we have put so many hours into driving up and down such an important street was something I never thought I would see. We had the opportunity to show off this project that I am incredibly proud of to thousands of people, so I was adamant about our participation.”
Every year, the GW Baja team designs and builds an all-weather, rugged, single-seat, off-road recreational vehicle from scratch to compete with in an intercollegiate engineering competition run by Baja SAE. They are one of the few Baja SAE teams this year predominantly led by women in engineering, with the majority of team members identifying as women as well. By splitting into engineering subteams focusing on chassis, powertrain, suspension, steering, and brakes, the team designed this year’s car and named it Gertrude or “Gertie” for short.
“Being a team where the leadership is mostly women has been very unique and fulfilling. Engineering is definitely a male-dominated field, and I think that’s even more true within the motorsports industry,” said Anjali Vu, Team Captain and junior Mechanical Engineering major. “I think having a female led team is a great example of the diversity of GW Engineering as a whole and highlights that the school is a place that provides opportunities for historically underrepresented groups within STEM.”
“The Red Bull event was particularly valuable as it allowed the team to show their hard work to a large public audience and to enhance GW Engineering’s reputation as a top-notch engineering school with a large and diverse group of female engineers, who are underrepresented in most peer universities. It was also pretty cool for them to be able to drive their Baja vehicle down Pennsylvania Avenue with a large audience of cheering spectators!” said Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Murray Snyder, who also serves as the team’s faculty advisor.
After racing through D.C., the GW Baja team put “Gertie” to the test from May 16 through 19 at the Baja SAE Williamsport competition, where their car faced much more demanding conditions. At these competitions, each car is judged and scored in two categories: static and dynamic events. To compete in the dynamic events, which include a hill climb, suspension, maneuverability, acceleration, and a four-hour endurance race, their car must pass an arduous technical inspection.
Before heading to Williamsport, Vu said they added guards to the main subsystems and had to make sure everything on the car was up to SAE standards. She said they also powder-coated their frame to feature GW’s school colors and prevent rusting. While the Red Bull Showrun did not directly provide insights into how to improve their vehicle’s performance at the Baja SAE competition, it did provide these students, who have a strong interest in F1 cars, a unique opportunity to see one up close.
In addition to the main race, the Red Bull racing team hosted a separate event where students from universities in the Washington D.C. metro area could interact with mechanics to gain a deeper understanding of the car’s construction and functionality. Pullen says this event allowed the GW Baja team to learn more about the mechanics of an F1 car and to see the similarities between it and their offroading vehicle, which she noted was more than they had expected.