Women in STEM at Pune College share Ohio State's passion for motorsports

The Ohio State University is no stranger to motorsports and has run a very successful Baja student organization for a long time. It was hard therefore to think twice about the special invitation extended by the Cummins College of Engineering to the Women in Pune, India to bring their own ‘all-women’ Baja team to compete for the first time at SAE International’s April, 2019 event in Cookesville, Tennessee.  

Professor Giorgio Rizzoni, director Center for Automotive Research, and Paul Sowerby, Executive Director for Cummins Global Technical Operations did the honors of unveiling the 2019 vehicle. The team didn’t disappoint an encouraging audience of students, parents, staff and sponsors by demonstrating their vehicles capabilities. Rizzoni got exclusive access to inspect the vehicle from the driver’s seat and spent quality time coaching the passionate team. 

Rizzoni connected with the young women engineers by walking them through the century long history of developments in electric vehicles, fielding questions and sharing the very interesting journey back at Ohio State. His insights and learnings around the design and development of the Buckeye Bullet series of electric experimental vehicles that currently hold the FIA record for the fastest electric land vehicles was excellent motivation for the young group of students.  

The Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, India was started with the primary objective of imparting higher education to aspiring women and, with support from Cummins, it allowed extending the already rich legacy of the parent organization - the Maharshi Karve Stree Kshishan Sanstha – that was established in 1896. The India Gateway has been engaged with the leadership at this college and a few avenues of mutual interest are under exploration.

Written by Nikhil Tambe, Office of International Affairs