Alex and a koala in Australia

Joining in the fall of his freshman year in 2006, Alex Dowling was a part of the strategy division from the very beginning.  Throughout his time on the team, Dowling worked his way up in the strategy division, starting as Interim Strategy Director in 2007, Head Strategist for NASC 2008, and later Strategy Director in 2009. Even after his time at the University, Dowling was able to be in an alumni media vehicle for the recent 2010 American Solar Challenge.

Currently, Dowling is attending graduate school at Carnegie Melon University to receive a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering.  The exposure from solar car to computer science, applied mathematics, engineering, and physics prepped him for studying at graduate school where he does research on process optimization. Using similar math and methods of how to drive the car, he can apply that knowledge to how to operate chemical plants (specifically on how to optimize the design separation processes for carbon capture and sequestration for next generation coal power plants).

“I’m in this cool position where I am able to help the current strategists with what they’re doing and also help myself study for school. I like how I’m able to use a concept I learned in grad school and apply it to solar car to show them better ways to analyze vehicle data.”

A favorite memory from his time on the team would be when he was preparing for NASC in 2008.  He was running the strategy division, modeling practice runs and driving a couple hours to validate the simulation model.

   “It finally started working and it was crazy to believe.  It’s really cool to see something you’ve worked on for a long time get to the real world and actually work.”

Alex and 09 team charging during Mock Race

A more nerve-wracking experience for Dowling was at the start of NASC ’08.  The first day was very cloudy and from a strategy standpoint, it makes racing more challenging.  It was difficult to get the battery charged and added more stress to the situation.  Trying to get to the first stage stop was increasingly stressful for Dowling as Head Strategist, where he made all the calls for how fast the car should be going.  In addition, the treaded tires left on from their unfortunate crash a few weeks before the race consumed more energy than if they used the un-treaded tires.  At the control stop, the team was able to perform a tire change in under than 30 minutes, giving the car a little bit more time on the battery’s power.  Luckily, the car was able to pull into the first stage stop with just 3% of battery power left and the rest of the race ran smoothly.

As far as Dowling’s thoughts on the current team goes, he believes it is the team’s best shot in the race.

“It’s a phenomenal car and being able to participate in the design review documentation and see simulation estimates of Quantum, I’m excited to see it run.  With the awesome strategists right now, combined with the new math that I’m acquainting them with, they’re doing things that I never would have thought of doing two years ago.”

But as a whole, Dowling hasn’t decided to give solar car up just yet.

“I like the fact that I can be an alumni and be involved with helping strategist but also apply it to work and school work. Even though the others say I need to let go, I’m able to justify still being involved. But, I miss working on something that I’m really passionate about.  Although I enjoy what I do in grad school, it’s not enough to spend 80 hours a week just thinking about it.”

The team in front of The Olgas in Australia

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Kramb in the drivers seat in '01

As one of the lead aero-body designers and drivers for both MaizeBlaze and M-Pulse, Jason Kramb has raced in two national races and two world races.  Within that time he has experienced a few thousand miles of testing time, enabling him to say he is one of the few individuals who has driven on the three major proving grounds (GM in Milford, Ford in Dearborn and Romeo, and Chrysler in Chelsea) in a solar car.

After solar car, Jason worked for a small jet engine manufacturer in Michigan then moved on to work for Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA.

 “Scaled is a company that works exactly like the Solar Car Team always did.  Same materials, same way of making parts, same approach to design, same hands-on building, same everything.”

There he worked on a number of cool projects such as the flight of SpaceShipOne, becoming a part of the first privately funded team to put a man into space.  Now, SpaceShipOne hangs proudly in the National Air and Space Museum, embodying Jason’s signature.

SS1 hanging up in the National Air & Space Musuem

Afterwards, Jason’s design skills were put to the test as he was the aerodynamicist for WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership for SpaceShipTwo.

 “On the first flight of WhiteKnightTwo, I have to admit it was pretty cool to see something you designed and did the analysis on take off right in front of you, using technology and tools that aren’t all that much more technologically advanced or complex than the tools I used when designing MaizeBlaze.  Solar Car truly is working with the leading edge of technology and it’s the best thing I ever did for my career. As I’ve told people many times, Solar Car was the hardest thing I ever did, but I’ll probably spend the rest of my life looking for a job just like it.”

Currently, Jason works with the Corvette Racing Team, developing the aerodynamics and wind tunnel testing the race cars that are competing all over the world against the best cars the rest of world can bring.  “Somehow, racing gets stuck in your blood – whether it’s 500hp Corvettes, or 2hp Solar Cars.”

As far as memories are concerned, Jason reminisces over the nights he spent sleeping on top of the semi-trailer in the middle of the Outback in areas where there wasn’t any form of civilization for 100 miles in any direction.  “Amazing nights with the breeze blowing to keep us cool and an endless sky of stars above us.  It was a good time.”

“But, nothing beats the crashing of M-Pulse just 17 days before the start of ASC 2001, then pulling into the finish as national champions.  We were devastated by the crash, but we knew we could rebuild the car and have it better than it was before it crashed.  It was better, and nothing could beat us after that.  We were determined to make it happen, no matter what got in our way.”

As far at the new team is concerned, “I wish them the best of luck. I’ve been impressed with everything and they’re doing a great job at keeping the Michigan Solar Car tradition going. Onward to Australia!”

Kramb being interviewed after racing

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Joining the team during his first month at the University of Michigan in 2007, Josh Feldman began as part of the strategy division.  From there, he became part of the NASC 2008 Race Crew, a driver and Race Strategist in WSC 2009, and part of StratCom in 2010-2011.

Feldman’s time at solar car has been ingrained into his memory to the point where he claims, “Just ask anyone who’s worked with me and they’ll tell you that I can come up with some random anecdote that relates to just about anything we had to deal with on solar car.”  He has the ability to list numerous memories, starting from constructing Infinium’s lower in his socks with a mask, or driving Infinium down the Stuart Highway for what seems like an eternity with no apparent change of scenery, or even being at a bar in Adelaide where the locals thought they were part of the “fire brigade” due to the yellow coats they were wearing.

Like many of his fellow solar car members and alumni, Feldman states that he misses the family aspect to the team.  “Summers in Ann Arbor for solar car were at the same time brutal and amazing.  Getting to the workspace at 8 a.m. and leaving at 2 or 3 a.m. wasn’t fun, but it was made tolerable because of the company of my teammates.  Having 25 siblings can be daunting, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Feldman as one of the drivers of Infinium.

Currently, Josh works as a software engineer on the Software Update Intergration Team at Apple, where he is developing major updates to Mac OS X.  Being on the team not only gave him a sense of family, but also the ability to be part of a team.  When starting his real life after graduation, there were a lot of anxieties, but how to work with others wasn’t one of them.

In all honesty, when asked about the current 2011 team, Feldman had his doubts on how they turned out.  However, he has been nothing but impressed since leaving the team.

“They are far more ambitious than we were, and that’s saying something (we had four matching black Chevy Tahoes!).  Their pursuit of aggressive timelines, their drive to improve the efficiency in all aspects of the car, their incredible improvements to Strategy, and even their community outreach have far surpassed what I thought would be done.  If we ever had a shot, this’d definitely be our best one.”

Josh Feldman and the team in Darwin, Australia.

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Julia and the kids who lived on the property that the team camped out on the last day of the race

Joining the solar car team during her sophomore year in 2007, Julia Hawley started as an events coordinator for Continuum. Later that year in December, she was elected Business Director, a position she held until she graduated from the Ross School of Business in 2010.

Currently, Julia works for Google in Cambridge, Massachusetts as an Account Manager with AdWords on the Consumer Packaged Goods team. At Google, Julia continues to participate on the business side of an engineering project, taking full advantage and opportunity to learn about all the products Google engineers create.

“It makes my job much more meaningful to understand how I fit into the bigger picture and to see how hard the other teams at Google work. Being the Business Director for the [solar car] team has taught me a lot about management and what needs to happen in order for the team to succeed. This perspective has allowed me to be more proactive with my leadership team at Google.”

Julia has recalled countless memories of being on the team, but one of her favorites was when she helped to arrange the 2005 Alumni trip to Aruba. She was sitting at work and the Prime Minister of Aruba started G-chatting her to figure out the logistics of the trip. Moments like that happened frequently, continuously blowing her away with how incredible the team was.

“However, the memory that can always make me laugh was one night in Australia, the whole team was sleeping when Frederick Barthelemy, an alumnus of the team, shot up and started screaming ‘it’s coming in!’ The whole team jolted awake, some people were up and out of the tent in panic in a blink of the eye. I on the other hand turned to John Federspiel who was next to me to ask what had happened. He explained (half asleep) that there was a small rodent in the tent (he gave me a hand measurement) at which point we both turned over and went back to sleep. In the morning we found out Frederick was having a nightmare that a bulldozer with spikes was about to plow the tent over.”

The team near Uluru, Australia

Julia has high hopes for the 2011 team, as she believes they have amazing energy. She reconfirms, “The Business Division has been able to make all the dreams I had for the team come alive. It’s incredibly hard to make time for business initiatives while still making sure the right resources are going to the core of the team – building the actual car. It is so nice to see that everything I worked so hard for has not only been sustained, but has been taken to the next level.”

Overall, Julia’s experience on the team has been more than positive as she ends by confessing, “Solar car was the reason I got up in the morning. I miss being part of something so incredible and believing in something so much that you will sacrifice everything for it. I miss the challenge and how much I grew as a person every day. I miss the engineers explaining their systems to me. I miss the jokes and the quote wall. And I miss feeling so invincible and that anything is possible.”

Julia at an Earth Day Event at the Leslie Science Center

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Furqan Nazeeri

Furqan Nazeeri believes that joining the solar car team in the fall of 1990 is one of the best decisions he has made in his lifetime.  Nazeeri was able to see the first Michigan team win the inaugural Sunrayce USA in 1990. Afterwards, he became a part of the “Maize & Blue” generation, working for three years to build a competitive solar car as the Project Manager, and leading the team to a victory in the 1993 Sunrayce.

Beginning his career as an engineer, Furqan was also the project manager of REVA, one of the world’s largest dealers of electric passenger vehicles. With more than 15 years of experience building and managing high growth software companies, Furqan is currently a Partner at the extensionEngine. In addition to being the founder or co-founder of three high-tech startups, Furqan gave a speech at the Center For Entrepreneurship discussing his success in entrepreneurship and it’s correlation with being on the solar car team.

Maize & Blue crossing the finish line of the 1993 Sunrayce.

One of his favorite memories was when the team crossed the finish line of Sunrayce 1993.  Furqan declared, “Three years earlier I had seen pictures of the 1990 team doing the same thing as they won GM Sunrayce USA.  In the time between, I had obsessed almost every hour of every day about how to achieve that same feat.  Giving so much to achieve a goal and to actually reach it was amazing.”

When thinking back about solar car, Furqan misses his teammates more than anything else.  He stated, “Never before and never since have I been able to be part of a team that is both so talented and so committed.  That sounds like a crazy way to describe a group of 20-somethings, but it’s true.”

But overall, Furqan cannot be more proud of the current 2011 team.  Still involved with the team as one of our top supporters, he believes that within the 20 years of solar car racing he has seen, the 2011 Michigan team is the best yet.

Two members putting on the canopy to Maize & Blue, which is much wider than Quantum's.

An old team photo from Furqan's time with the team.

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