BAA Deploys New Buggy AI

Posted on | by Rob Siemborski | Leave a Comment on BAA Deploys New Buggy AI

As anyone familiar with Buggy knows, the BAA is constantly looking for opportunities to better connect students, alumni, and the wider community with the sport that we all love. For example, this year the BAA has worked to improve our support for new teams by refreshing the buggy build book, expanded our history database with race details from the 1980s and 1990s, and started to provide limited video coverage of freeroll practices.

With that in mind, we wanted to find a new way for fans of the sport to engage with the vast collection of knowledge that is contained in the BAA community. As many Carnegie Mellon students and alumni know, AI is proving to be a technology that is allowing people to learn things that just a few years ago they would have never believed to be true.

Of course, we already have experience in the BAA with Artificial Intelligence through our raceday predictions provided by MechaJockey. However, we wanted to find a way for the greater community to actively engage with our data and alumni experience from the last hundred years. MechaJockey is not efficient enough to run full time interactively (and besides, who knows what MechaJockey might do to us meatbags). Thus we needed to develop a new, vibrant, and ovine-forward approach. A chatbot was really the only possible answer to meet these needs.

With that in mind, we herded multiple departments at the university including the CS department, Computing Services, and Landscaping to shepherd the necessary skills to bring such an experience to life. Together, this group of experts have developed a new form of LLM that we call the neural flock (paper to be published later this year in the respected journal “Colamborations of the ACM”).

Thus, today we are pleased to announce SchenleyAI, available for public use on our discord. As an early beta, SchenleyAI is able to answer simple yes or no questions. It has been extensively trained on all of our most active discord discussions, as well as the older forum archives, history data, photos, rolls reports, and miscellaneous other buggy content we have at our disposal. As it happens, the insights provided by our most vocal alumni proved to be the key to bring this vast knowledge together.

Today’s release is the beginning — a beta test capable of responding to your yes or no questions about buggy (we’re keeping it simple, as things always have a risk of going wrong with new Buggy Software). You can try it today in any of our public discord channels. Simply preface your question with ‘$schenley‘. For example:

rjs3: $schenley Will the weather be acceptable for freerolls this weekend? SchenleyAI: Much like raceday 1922, that question is too close to call.

Our experiences so far have been Not Baaaaaad, but we look forward to seeing what everyone else can bleat out of it. We can hardly imagine all the new concepts that AI will bring to our favorite sport. Log into our discord and give it a try today!

Update: We would like to thank everyone for participating in our initial test of SchenleyAI. However, upon reflection, training on the chats of the most vocal and opinionated alumni might not have been the best plan, and we have discontinued the service and placed SchenleyAI into a virtual field where he can frolic and graze to his heart’s content.

Volunteers needed for Raceday!

Posted on | by Jeremy Tuttle | Leave a Comment on Volunteers needed for Raceday!

Hello BAA members and buggy fans! Raceday is quickly approaching. As usual, we can’t do all our good work without your help. Though last year’s Raceday was a strange one, the shared effort of this community made it so much better than it could ever have been without. So, we ask you once again to volunteer your efforts. There are three main roles we need covered:

  1. People to staff the BAA tent, who will dispense schedules, spotters guides, and information to fans new and old
  2. People to help in the official timing booth, transcribing race times into our live-updating table as each race ends
  3. People to participate on-screen in the broadcast booth, alongside the illustrious Will Weiner, other familiar beloved characters, and maybe Connor too.

You’ll see in the sign-up sheets that you can volunteer to help on specific segments of the weekend, so you can stay free for any other times. The more volunteers we get, the less weight any one person has to carry, so please encourage your friends to sign up too!

You can sign up to help with timing or tent staffing at https://cmubuggy.org/volunteer.
If you want to commentate on the broadcast, use this link! https://cmubuggy.org/broadcast-volunteer.

We’ll see you at Raceday!

Buggy Enhancement Grants Open All Semester

Posted on | by Wade Gordon | Leave a Comment on Buggy Enhancement Grants Open All Semester

The Spring 2026 Buggy Enhancement Grant application will remain open through raceday 2026. After you submit your application, expect an email from the committee the following week with questions and concerns that they would like to see addressed. Once you have responded to the committee’s feedback, we’ll hold the final vote on your grant proposal.

Apply Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/2026springgrant

Keeping grant applications open throughout the fall allowed us to better serve the buggy community by engaging with students closer to the moment of inspiration for their proposal. This doubled the number of projects that the committee was able to consider last semester. Please note that proposals for larger dollar amounts may be asked to wait until the start of the next semester so that other projects can be considered along side them.

Thank you for all of our Golden Goose Lifetime Members who have made this program possible. If you would like to support this program, a contribution of $1,000 to the Buggy Endowed Fund will earn you a Golden Goose Lifetime Membership to the BAA. These funds are invested by the university, and the return on that investment perpetually funds the Buggy Enhancement Grant program, making the sport safer, faster, and more fun for all who enjoy it for many years to come!

Become a Lifetime Member Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/membership

Buggy Enhancement Grant Reminder

Posted on | by Wade Gordon

Apply Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/2026springgrant

Submissions are due at midnight this Saturday, the 31st. The committee will meet next week for the initial discussion and voting, and applicants will have 7 days to respond to the committee’s feedback before final voting.

We have $15,000 available for this round of funding! This money belongs to you as a member of the buggy community to enhance your enjoyment of the sport. If you have an idea to make the sport safer, faster, or more fun, we want to hear from you!

Proposals can be specific to your team. Please include some details on how the community as a whole will benefit from funding your project. For example, you might share documentation of your process, publish a video, or give a talk about your findings. You might build something to collect better data during rolls, test out a new material, or build something to make your chores easier.

Apply Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/2026springgrant

For more information on the grant program, including previously approved grant applications, materials and findings from previously approved grants, how to spend your grant money, and more, please read All About Buggy Enhancement Grants.

Spring 2026 Buggy Enhancement Grants Now Open!

Posted on | by Wade Gordon

Apply Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/2026springgrant

Welcome back! It is time to submit your ideas for Buggy Enhancement Grants for the spring semester! If you have ideas that you think will enhance your buggy experience, we want to hear from you!

Submissions are due by January 31st, and will be reviewed by the committee the following week. Applicants will have 1 week to respond to the committee’s feedback before the final voting.

Proposals can be specific to your team. Please include some details on how the community as a whole will benefit from funding your project. For example, you might share documentation of your process, publish a video, or give a talk about your findings. You might build something to collect better data during rolls, test out a new material, or build something to make your chores easier.

Apply Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/2026springgrant

Last semester, $7,370 was awarded to grant recipients, a new record! Every project that applied during the initial campaign was fully funded. We kept applications open for the full semester, which allowed us to fund and additional 3 projects!

For more information on the grant program, including previously approved grant applications, materials and findings from previously approved grants, how to spend your grant money, and more, please read All About Buggy Enhancement Grants.

BAA Grants for Retrofits and New Builds

Posted on | by Diya Nuxoll

The BAA Teams Committee has three funding opportunities available to current buggy teams for the 2025-2026 academic year:

We are continuing to offer our New Build Grant. If your team has not rolled a new buggy in the past 4 years, the BAA will reimburse up to $500 of build related expenses. This applies to new and ongoing builds.

In addition to the New Build Grant, we’re excited to announce the availability of a Retrofit Grant. This grant is available to fund up to $300 for retrofits on any currently non-rollable buggy to make it rollable and bylaws compliant.

Both of these grants are handled on a reimbursement basis. Reach out to Diya Nuxoll <diyanuxoll@cmubuggy.org> if you are interested in taking advantage of this funding!

And finally, as a continuation of our previous Hard Point Retrofit Funding, the BAA has provided Sweepstakes with funds to bulk purchase the supplies required for the recommended hard point retrofit methodology. If you are interested in performing this retrofit, please contact the RD26 Sweepstakes Mechanical Safety Chair, Sam Green <slgreen@andrew.cmu.edu>.

As always, even if none of these apply to your team, reach out to the BAA Teams Committee if you would like help finding sustainable sources of funding for your team, need advice to support your build, or need to find an extra set of hands for a critical work session.

Buggy Enhancement Grants Open All Semester

Posted on | by Wade Gordon

To better serve the Buggy community, we will be keeping the Buggy Enhancement Grant application open all semester. Half of the remaining unallocated funds from the grant pool will be available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Apply Here:
http://cmubuggy.org/2025fallgrant

After you submit your application, expect an email from the committee the following week with questions and concerns that they would like to see addressed. Once you have responded to the committee’s feedback, we’ll hold the final vote on your grant proposal.

Buggy Enhancement Grant Spotlight – Drone Project

Posted on | by Wade Gordon

We have an exciting update on the Buggy Enhancement Grant drone project. This week was our first test of automatically generating composite images of the driver’s line for every buggy for a full day of rolls. This system enables quick turnaround for driver’s to analyze their line and make incremental improvements as they work up to raceday speed. The original drone footage gives an incomparable view of the speed and handling of the buggy as the driver navigates through the chute, and the composite images highlight minute differences in the geometry of the turn.

This is a multidisciplinary multi-organization project led by Tjaden “TJ” Bridges of SDC, and received funding as part of the spring 2024 Buggy Enhancement Grant campaign. It truly captures the spirit of the Buggy Enhancement Grant program by making the sport faster, safer, and more enjoyable for everyone.

You can view the full set of composite images on Saturday’s gallery. Footage is uploaded to CMUBuggyDrones on YouTube.

Disclaimer

The footage and images are tools for you to make your team safer and faster. They are not a substitute for caution and good judgement in how the drivers, mechanics, and pushers plan how to safely get the team up to speed.

Behind the Scenes

On the Ground

The biggest challenge for this project came from the logistics of getting permission from everyone to have the drone in the air during their rolls and ensuring all of the equipment is prepped and ready for every day of rolls.

In the Air

Wind conditions permitting, we record from 50 meters above the northwest corner of Schenley Drive and Frew Street with the camera is tilted down at 55 degrees. We try to keep a few meters leading up to the chute flag in view so drivers have good feedback on the timing of when they should start the turn.

On the Web

The image compositing is done with an OpenCV Python script. A background subtractor generates an on the fly model of the road and highlights differences between frames. A blob detector then identifies candidate moving objects in each frame, and a set of Kalman filters track the trajectories between frames. This allows us to filter out small motion and slow moving objects, but the occasional goose in flight still gets its own line photo. The relevant frames are all aligned to the first frame for each buggy, and the tracking data gives us a mask to efficiently apply a bit of math to the pixel values that selectively lightens or darkens the composite image. Labeling the images with the org/buggy is still a manual process, but we’re working on training an image classifier to auto tag the images.

Fall 2025 Buggy Enhancement Grants

Posted on | by Wade Gordon

I am overjoyed to announce that 100% of the grant applications we received for the Fall 2025 grant campaign have been funded! Thank you to all of our applicants for taking time to assemble such strong applications!

Caroline Kiesnowski received funding to install an electrical hookup for the shared mill that resides between the Fringe and Apex shops.

Adithi Phadke received funding to build RTK data loggers for SPIRIT Racing Systems.

Frank Robb received funding to purchase FIA impact data recorders for potentially the entire fleet of rolling buggies. The grant funds hardware for any rolling buggy, so please reach out if you are interested in collecting this data for your team.

Wade Gordon received funding to purchase software and equipment to facilitate getting real time footage from a drone to the broadcast truck.