Driven to Succeed: Student Honored for Leadership of Embry-Riddle’s Baja Team

When Bridget O’Connell joined Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Women’s Baja SAE team as a sophomore, the student group hadn’t competed nationally in the off-road racing and design challenge in a few years.

The Columbus, Ohio native was originally attracted to the team for its hands-on experience in engineering. The Baja SAE competition, sponsored by SAE International, challenges student teams to design and build a single-seat vehicle capable of handling the roughest terrain.

O’Connell stands next to the club’s vehicle. (Photo: Embry-Riddle)

“I joined in 2023, and I was excited to contribute to the team’s growth,” said O’Connell, an Aerospace Engineering major.

As a new member, she served on the suspension and welding teams. O’Connell built on that knowledge by spending time as a mechanical engineering intern at her dad’s racing company, O’Connell Car Development LLC, in Cincinnati.

“I spent a summer working with my dad in his shop,” said O’Connell. “I did hands-on machining and learned how to weld, which I love to do.”

The following summer, she served as a race engineering intern at Jensen Global Advisors in Orlando, analyzing race data and advising teenage race car drivers. 

In her junior year, O’Connell moved into the role of president and chief technical officer of the Embry-Riddle Women’s Baja SAE team, leading about 25 students in the design, construction and testing of a vehicle for the national competition. The vehicle was unlike any other, moving on tracks like a tank, a change from the typical wheeled vehicle.

“With that vehicle, we attended a competition in June 2025 in Maryland, and we were able to pass the technical inspection and put down endurance laps, which was a huge achievement.”

O’Connell credited her predecessor, Dorea Dewberry, for laying the groundwork for the team’s success. Dewberry, the team president before O’Connell, introduced the concept of the tracked vehicle and helped the team achieve significant momentum in 2024, despite not being able to compete for points that year.

“Under Dorea’s leadership, the team gained valuable experience, and we were able to take that momentum into future vehicle builds,” said O’Connell.

Dr. Patrick Currier, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, described O’Connell as an “honorary mechanical engineer,” though she is also active in aerospace engineering, serving as an aerodynamics research assistant for Dr. Ebenezer Gnanamanickam at the university’s Wind Tunnel Laboratory.  After she graduates in May, she will start working as an associate systems test engineer at Northrop Grumman in Utah.

Embry-Riddle’s SAE Baja team created the first tracked vehicle to officially qualify to compete nationally in SAE International’s off-road racing and design challenge. (Photo: Embry-Riddle)

“Bridget has transformed the Women’s Baja SAE team into a highly motivated group that introduced tracked vehicles into the off-road vehicle competition,” said Currier. “Bridget has an extraordinary drive, and she is able to convince a wide range of people to work hard to follow that vision with an exceptional mix of drive, accountability, humor and compassion,” he added.

A professional organization made up of more than 200,000 aerospace, commercial vehicle, and ground vehicle engineers and technical experts, SAE International recently honored O’Connell with its award for Outstanding Student Leadership in STEM, an award established by former SAE Executive Vice President Max E. Rumbaugh Jr. and named in his honor. She will be recognized on April 14 at the SAE International Award Ceremony at the WCX 2026 World Congress Experience in Detroit, Michigan.

“SAE chose well for this prestigious award as she is an outstanding student and leader,” said Currier, who nominated O’Connell for the award.

This past fall, Women’s Baja SAE alumni and members marked the club’s 20th anniversary with a bash on the Daytona Beach Campus. The team, founded in 2005, was originally an all-women team and its name still honors that tradition, but the team changed to co-ed five years ago.

As O’Connell reflected on her time with the team, she said it felt satisfying to leave the club in a better place.

“It’s been a huge undertaking, but I have grown so much through the experience,” she said.