Ajou University student team A-FA ranked 2^nd and won the Gold Prize in the 2019 KSAE Baja Competition for university students.

The 2019 KSAE Baja Competition, which was held from August 16^th to the 18^th at Gunsan Saemangeum Convention Center, is the largest event of its kind in South Korea and aims to enhance students' interest in and understanding of automobiles and showcase ideas on future automobiles through their designing and building of vehicles.

About 2,700 students – 187 teams from 98 universities – participated in the Competition, which comprised four categories, including Baja (off-road race), Formula (on-road race), Electric Vehicles, and Technology (technological ideas and designs).

Ajou's Team A-FA took 2^nd place among 101 teams in its category and received a plaque and two million won of prize money based on the vehicle examination and evaluation of dynamic and resistance performance. In the Baja category, the winner is decided by the automobile’s performance on rough terrain (dynamic performance) and 35 laps around an 1.29-km off-road track (resistance performance) for vehicles with 125-cc Korean engines.

Ajou University students took part in the Formula and Baja categories.

The Baja team consisted of 16 students in total – five executives including Yeon Seo Kim (entrance class of 2014), Ja Heon Koo (entrance class of 2015), Yong Wook Lee (entrance class of 2015), Yoo Na Kim (entrance class of 2018), and Chang Hyeon Sung (entrance class of 2018), and 11 other members including Geon Ho Kim (entrance class of 2019), Yeong Gyun Kim (entrance class of 2019), Jong Seop Kim (entrance class of 2019), Jun Yeong Seo (entrance class of 2019), Il Seop Shin (entrance class of 2019), Yun Jeong Choi (entrance class of 2019), Seong Bin Lee (entrance class of 2019), Shi Wook Lee (entrance class of 2019), Hoon Jeong (entrance class of 2019), Seon Woo Choi (entrance class of 2019), and Geun Hee Han (entrance class of 2019).

Guiding professor Yong Ho Jeon (Department of Mechanical Engineering) said, "I am very proud of the students who have achieved outstanding results despite limited support, and I would also like to thank all the people who provided support and encouragement," adding, "The achievement is the result of the unrelenting efforts of each and every member of our team."

Yeon Seo Kim (junior, Department of Mechanical Engineering), who took charge of the car design, said, "I am very pleased that we have received the Gold Prize five years after winning the Silver Prize in 2014. It was possible because our team members put their heads together for the design and manufacturing, which required diverse ideas and hard work." 

He went on to say, "In designing the cars, we focused on predicting the dynamic performance and durability of the vehicles through accurate calculation," adding, "I would like to acknowledge the contributions and efforts of all the society members in preparing for the competition."

A-FA, which was established in 1993, consists of 136 Ajou University students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, who are interested in automobiles and come from diverse majors, including the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Software, and the Department of Sociology. The student society won the Participation Award in the 2012 KSAE Baja, the Silver Prize in the 2014 KSAE Baja, the Best Rookie Award and the Participation Award in the 2015 KSAE Formula, and took 6^th place in the 2018 Virtual Formula.