During my time with Kennesaw Motorsports, I was a member of the Composites Subgroup, where we were responsible for designing and fabricating all composite components for the cars. The photos to the right showcase our team completing eight simultaneous layups for the front wing of one of the vehicles. Although I am no longer an active member, my experience with Kennesaw Motorsports taught me valuable lessons—not only about working with composites but also about effective collaboration across multiple departments on complex projects.
This is a showcase of one of my personally led projects: the development of a carbon fiber pushrod. The team aimed to reduce weight by transitioning from steel to carbon fiber pushrod suspension. However, we encountered challenges with insufficient adhesive strength between the aluminum inserts and the carbon fiber tube, causing the inserts to pull out under moderate loads. My role was to design and test various solutions to address this issue. These designs included a smooth-faced insert, a pinned insert, a grooved insert, and a capped insert. Although the carbon fiber pushrod was not implemented that year, the project provided me with invaluable experience in problem-solving, material testing, and design iteration.