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Excellence and Expertise Oxford and Beyond

Miami University Redhawk Racing Baja SAE team receives grants from Gene Haas Foundation and American Axle

Miami University’s Redhawk racing team, Baja SAE, recently received $10,000 from the Gene Haas Foundation 2022 Post-Secondary Scholarship and Sponsorship Award, as well as $5,000 from American Axle, which will be used toward student scholarships and materials for manufacturing a new Baja car.

Excellence and Expertise Oxford and Beyond

Miami University Redhawk Racing Baja SAE team receives grants from Gene Haas Foundation and American Axle

By Gabby Benedict, CEC Student Intern

Miami University’s Redhawk Racing team, Baja SAE, recently received grants from the Gene Haas Foundation and American Axle to award student scholarships and buy materials for manufacturing a brand-new Baja car.

The Baja team received $10,000 from the Gene Haas Foundation’s 2022 Post-Secondary Scholarship and Sponsorship Award and $5,000 from American Axle.

Each year, the team dedicates time to creating a new Baja car, designing and manufacturing about 90% of what goes into the final model. A Baja car is a lightweight and off-road vehicle that the team will use to compete in an international competition through the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Baja SAE is a challenge for future engineers to work together as a team through various technical challenges such as design, testing, and manufacturing, as well as business issues. The competition also gives students a great opportunity to pursue their passion first-hand. The goal of each competing team is to design and build a prototype of an all-weather, rugged, single-seat, off-road Baja vehicle that can be manufactured for sale.

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A Redhawk Racing Baja Car in action at the 2022 Baja Butler Bash.
The team’s advisor, Karl Reiff, is an assistant lecturer at Miami in the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering department. Reiff has been an MME laboratory technician/coordinator since 2004 and has been the Baja team’s advisor since 2005.