Research Profiles

John Keyser - Mechanical Engineering

Part of the reason I chose engineering was that I am really interested in figuring out how things work. Working on the UMBC Society of Automotive Engineers' mini-baja race team has been a hands-on application of everything I've learned so far in my classes. As the shop supervisor, I spend up to 15 hours a week designing and constructing mini-baja cars to be raced against other cars built by students across the nation.

We compete in races with about 110 schools and 150 different cars. The most exciting experience I've had with the team was our race in Milwaukee. We placed in the top ten for the categories of speed and acceleration, tractor pull, hill climb and maneuverability. It was good to see that all our hard work paid off.

Watch a video of the mini-baja team in action, produced by UMBC's New Media Studio.

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