Formula Hybrid at MSOE
MOZEE Motorsports: a student-built hybrid race car, and the engineering organization behind it.
The competition
Formula Hybrid challenges university teams to design, build, and race an open-wheel hybrid-electric car, judged on engineering design as much as on-track performance. It's the closest thing a student can get to running a small vehicle program: real deadlines, real rules compliance, real budgets, and a car that either works or doesn't.
Project Manager
I served as the team's Project Manager, steering the program in a new direction: build the engineers, not just the car. It sounded like a wild idea, but it paid off, doubling our numbers, holding a larger roster through the end of the year, and putting the MP7 through the first real testing it has ever seen. Along the way I cut down all-team meeting lengths and supported lower-commitment pathways onto the team, so members without huge amounts of time to give could still find a place to contribute. I also organized the full move of our shop out of the old roll-out garage and into an interim basement space while a new garage is built in the new science building. That season taught me how a race program actually moves: not through heroic all-nighters, but through planning that survives contact with reality.
Engineering Manager
As Engineering Manager I now lead six subteams spanning powertrain, controls, chassis, and electrical systems. On paper it's a step down from Project Manager; in practice it's the chance to expand a forgotten and underutilized role, and to do far more engineering while I'm at it. My technical background on the team includes ECU integration, electronic throttle control, STM32-based sensor work, and LV/HV harness design, which lets me review work across every subteam rather than managing from a distance.
Building a process that outlives us
Student teams reset every year, and knowledge walks out the door with every graduating class. My current initiative is a full documentation system for the team: standardized templates for change proposals, new projects, iterations, emergency fixes, and guides, with a defined review and approval workflow and a SharePoint document hub behind it. The goal is simple: a freshman in three years should be able to open a document and know exactly what was done, why, and what to do next.