UT EP mechanical and industrial engineering students and faculty hosted the Mini-Baja West several times in the early 1980s. The annual regional contests started in 1974, challenging students to build vehicles that would travel over rough terrain powered by two-horsepower .~ ngines. In April 1983, competition at lJTEP drew entries from twenty universities in eleven states and Mexico. The track was on the rugged hills northeast of the Sun Bowl. Springtime finds mechanical and industrial engineering students applying the paint brushes to their cement canoes for the annual competition with New Mexico State University students on the Rio Grande. The first challenge with a cement canoe is toget it tofloat.
194