BAJA SAE BRASIL – Northeast Stage 2026: Engineering That Leaves the Classroom and Hits the Track

From September 25 to 27, SENAI CIMATEC Park in Camaçari, Bahia, will welcome engineering students for three days of design, testing, competition, and hands-on learning. Global Group will be there as an official sponsor of this year’s event.

When a Baja vehicle hits the track, there is already a long story behind that first turn. Months of calculations, design decisions, manufacturing, testing, adjustments, and teamwork all come together at the moment of competition.

That is exactly what the 19th BAJA SAE BRASIL – Northeast Stage will bring to SENAI CIMATEC Park in Camaçari, Bahia, from September 25 to 27, 2026. The event brings university teams together around a challenge that connects academic learning with the real demands of vehicle development.

FROM THEORY TO AN OFF-ROAD VEHICLE

The Baja SAE program challenges students to develop an off-road vehicle through several stages, including concept development, detailed design, construction, and testing. The teams represent their universities and arrive at the competition with solutions developed over months of work.

In practice, this means making decisions involving structure, suspension, steering, transmission, ergonomics, safety, performance, and systems integration. Every choice must take into account how the vehicle behaves as a whole and the conditions it will face during the competition.

The track becomes an extension of the development process. It is where concepts studied in the classroom come to life and where students can see, in real conditions, the results of the decisions made throughout the project.

A 50-YEAR STORY

The first Baja SAE competition took place in 1976 at the University of South Carolina in the United States, under the direction of Dr. John F. Stevens.

In Brazil, SAE BRASIL began its activities in 1991 and launched the Baja SAE BRASIL Project in 1994. The first national competition was held the following year in São Paulo. Starting in 1997, the organization also began supporting regional competitions, expanding the program across the country, including Bahia.

In 2026, Baja celebrates 50 years since its first competition, while keeping the same core purpose: creating opportunities for students to face real engineering challenges while developing both technical and professional skills.

ENGINEERING IS ALSO BUILT THROUGH TEAMWORK

Developing a Baja vehicle involves a great deal of technical work, but the experience also requires planning, time management, organization, problem-solving, and collaboration.

A component may need to be redesigned. A behavior identified during testing may require a new setup. A solution that worked on a computer still needs to perform when the vehicle faces dirt, impacts, and uneven terrain.

This cycle of designing, building, testing, analyzing, and improving has a strong connection with the day-to-day reality of professional engineering projects.

That connection with the industry is one of the reasons initiatives such as Baja are so valuable in the development of new talent. The program gives students the opportunity to apply academic knowledge while preparing for the challenges they will encounter in their professional careers.

GLOBAL GROUP AT BAJA NORTHEAST 2026

For Global Group, supporting BAJA Northeast also means staying close to a new generation of engineers who are already putting their knowledge into practice.

Throughout the three-day event, we will be following the teams, the vehicles, the challenges, and the stories that make this experience so valuable.

And we also want to meet the people who are helping shape the next chapters of engineering.

During the event, students and participants will also have the opportunity to learn more about the Global Group Talent Pool, created to connect emerging professionals with career opportunities and engineering projects within the company.

From September 25 to 27, engineering will be in motion at SENAI CIMATEC Park.

See you at BAJA Northeast 2026.