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CORVALLIS - In a rugged, boulder-strewn rock quarry near Logan, Utah, a student engineering team from Oregon State University completed a grueling four-hour endurance test recently to win second place in a competition that pitted off-road race cars built by student engineering teams from 110 colleges and universities, some from as far away as Korea and Poland.

"This is the first time our team has placed anywhere near this high in the competition," said OSU mechanical engineering professor Bob Paasch, the team's faculty adviser. "These students did a spectacular job, from the initial design all the way through to the driving."

The SAE Mini-Baja West Competition is one of three national contests sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers to give college students experience in "real world" engineering. The OSU team will now compete in the Midwest competition in Troy, Ohio, in early June.

The SAE competition requires student teams to design and build a single-seat, off-road vehicle capable of handling any type of terrain. The competition is based on the premise that students are vying to sell a design to a fictitious company that wants to manufacture 4,000 units per year at a production cost of less than $3,000 each. The prototype cars entered in the contest are rigorously tested for maneuverability, speed, power, and durability, including a 150-foot-long straight line acceleration run, a steep hill climb, a narrow and windy maneuverability course, a rock crawl over large boulders, and a four-hour endurance race. Teams must also provide design and safety reports, a cost report, and make a sales presentation to judges.

"This is all about a hands-on engineering education," Paasch said. "Our students apply the theory they learn in the classroom to a real-world project, then they take it on the road to see how well their work stacks up against other student teams. In the process, they learn a lot, and have a lot of fun, too."

This year's 26-member OSU team included seven women and involved students from various OSU engineering departments and the College of Business. Student drivers included Wendy Keevy, McMinnville; Darren Johnson, Lapine; Thomas Vaeretti, Welches; Joe Brokowski, Eagle Point; Dave Elia, Corvallis; Chris Schafer, Beaverton; Andrew Skinner, Albany; and Dustin Parks, Cottage Grove.

Vaeretti said it costs approximately $15,000 to build a car and send it to competition, and students raise most of that money through sponsorships by companies.