Sam Woolsey | President
Sam is a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Blacksburg, VA. As President, Sam is responsible for representing the team externally, as well as managing the business, outreach, and operations divisions. In his free time, Sam enjoys playing drum set, jumping off rope swings, and riding his bike.
Ammar Hussein | SR-4 Vehicle Lead
Ammar is a second-year electrical engineering student from Virginia Beach, VA. As SR-4 lead, he is responsible for the development and improvement of GTSR’s current vehicle to ensure it is ready to drive come competition. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and getting ice cream with friends.
Florian Chevalier | SR-5 Vehicle Lead
Florian is a third-year mechanical engineering student from Miami, FL. As SR-5 lead, he is responsible for coordinating the mechanical and electrical divisions, ensuring we stay on track to complete our next car. Outside of solar racing, Florian enjoys road cycling, skiing, and anything outdoorsy.
Pranjal Chatterjee | Electrical Lead
Pranjal is a third-year Electrical Engineering major and CS + Physics minor from San Jose, California. As the team’s Electrical Lead, Pranjal oversees the design and implementation of all electrical systems for GTSR’s solar cars, aiming for reliability and optimization in design and manufacturing. Outside of Solar Racing, Pranjal enjoys playing the trombone, hiking, and cooking.
Cyrus Dadina | Mechanical Lead
Cyrus is a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Dobbs Ferry, NY. As mechanical lead, Cyrus is responsible for the design and implementation of all mechanical systems on the GTSR’s solar cars. Outside of Solar Racing, Cyrus is an undergraduate researcher for the Shock Tube Advanced Mixing Lab and competes in club track and triathlon. In his spare time, he enjoys bouldering, gaming, and participating in GT Flash Mob.
Alexa Hoang | Race Operations Lead
Alexa is a second-year Mechanical Engineering student from Dallas, TX. As the Race Operations Lead, she is responsible for the car’s journeys in and out of shop as well as race and testing logistics. Her favorite solar memory is staying at the SCC until 2am on the night before the mini-500 to build the racing trike.
Chittebbayi Penugonda | Strategy Lead
Chittebbayi is a third-year Computer Science major from Cumming, GA. As Strategy Lead, Chittebbayi is responsible for overseeing SRSim, the software that optimizes the team’s race strategy. Outside of Solar Racing and coding, he enjoys volleyball, bouldering, and poker.
Audrey Nguyen | Business Lead
Audrey Nguyen is a third-year Business Administration (Concentration in Finance) student with an Engineering minor from Suwanee, Georgia. As GT Solar Racing’s Business Lead, she oversees sponsorship renewals, budget planning, and donor relations, translating technical progress into clear value for partners. Her favorite Solar memory is getting to meet the team and build friendships that made every challenge more meaningful. In her free time, she loves exploring new coffee shops around Atlanta, watching films, and staying active outdoors.
Preston Jhun | Outreach Lead
Preston is a second-year Computational Media student from Johns Creek, GA. As Outreach lead, he is responsible for overseeing the recruitment/onboarding process as well as GTSR’s social media presence. In his free time, he loves to nerd out about movies and learn card tricks.
Mike Tinskey | Faculty Advisor
Mike recently led Ford Motor Company’s go-to-market strategy and execution for Ford’s electrified vehicles globally from 2009-2019. Mike developed and executed foundational global product cycle plan and incubated new businesses and services to support the plug-in products such as Mustang Mach-e, Focus EV, Fusion Energi, and Transit Connect Electric. Mr. Tinskey was the lead in getting global automakers to align around a common EV connector for high-powered charging.
Mike also led emerging business activities as Director of Global Emerging Services, Connected Vehicles. His focus was to develop and implement new products, business models, and partnerships to ensure the success of Ford’s connectivity plans globally, including the generation of new revenue opportunities. Mike recently led the creation of several new entities including Ford Insure (digital insurance), Ionity (ultra-fast charging joint venture), and Ford Commercial Services (digital fleet services). He’s also been one of the key leaders in spinning off technology-based component companies Visteon and Automotive Components Holdings (ACH).
Mike is a co-founder of Cobra Motorcycles, as well as a drone start-up Cobra Aero. Mr. Tinskey has served on the Georgia Tech Mechanical Engineering and ECE Advisory boards for well over a decade. He enjoys mentoring start-ups and CreateX teams.
Mike is currently the Professor of Practice at Georgia Tech with his research and teaching focus on intrapreneurship, electrification, and energy.
David Smith | Mechanical Advisor
David R. “Alpha” Smith (Ph.D., PE) has spent his career between teaching and engineering practice. After working initially as a postdoctoral research engineer, he joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, earning tenure there in 1998. In 2000, he entered private engineering practice, supporting the design, commissioning, and control of large, high-frequency radio telescopes. While this allowed occasional opportunities to teach, he missed the classroom enough to return full-time to teaching by joining Georgia Tech’s GWW School of Mechanical Engineering as a Lecturer in 2018. He teaches a wide range of courses in the undergraduate core curriculum and has provided advice to the GT Solar Racing team in mechanical design, mechanisms, experimental design, modeling, and data analysis.