Blue Jay Racing Alumni
It’s incredibly important to recognize the alumni who have worked so hard to build our program as students. The number of people who have dedicated an unimaginable amount of time and effort to JHU Baja is uncountable, and this page only holds a small sampling of those individuals. The immense contributions of those who have called themselves member of Blue Jay Racing will have great impact on the engineering and leadership education of students for many years to come.
We wouldn’t be where we are without you!
Alumni Shoutouts
Bobby Ng
Mechanical Engineering 2007
Vehicle Engineering Lead at Range
Blue Jay Racing Co-Founder
Adam Baumgartner
Mechanical Engineering 2010
Electrical Engineer at Bowery Farming
“Team Parent”
Anna Goodridge
Mechanical Engineering 2017
Hopkins LCSR
Faculty Advisor 2020-2023
2023 Alumni - 19XT
Lance Phillips
JHU Mechanical Engineering ’23
Suspension Lead, Team Captain
Chassis Architecture at Lucid Motors
Favorite Memory: “Landing a jump on top of another car in Tennesse, and [both] continuing on as if nothing happened!”
Ari Miller
JHU Mechanical Engineering ’23
Controls Lead, Testing Lead
Testing engineer at Tesla
Favorite Memory: “I love all of a car’s firsts… the first time rolling, first driving… maybe even first rollover!”
Marcus Montisano
Mechanical Engineering ’23
Suspension Design, Graphics Lead
Favorite Memory: “Flipping the car during Oshkosh sled pull!”
2022 Alumni - 18XT
Eleanor O’Callaghan
JHU Mechanical Engineering ’22
Drivetrain Lead, CFO, Team Captain
Favorite Memory: “I can never forget the time I removed the transfer case from the 17XT at our Louisville competition in 2021. You can’t even imagine the amount of oil that ended up on my pants!”
Sophie Dunn
JHU Mechanical Engineering ’22
Frame Lead, Suspension Lead, CFO
Mechanical engineer at Tesla, chassis and suspension design
Favorite Memory: “It’s like how can I pick just one – you know? Just like so many!”
Alex Klein
Mechanical Engineering ’22
Controls Lead, Testing Lead
Mechanical Engineer at Ball Aerospace
Favorite Memory: “Passing brake check first try at comp!”
2019 Alumni - 17XT
Nathan Kalieda
JHU Mechanical Engineering ’21
Suspension Lead, Team Captain
Structures Design at Blue Origin
Additional Team Spotlights
Peter Cremona-Simmons
Mechanical Engineering ’12
All Subsystems
Career: Honda R&D Americas LLC
Favorite Memory: Top ten finish in maneuverability 2010 or 2011. We learned how to setup the car to three wheel around corners.
Alex Strachan
Applied Math & Statistics ’11
Career: Software Engineer in San Francisco, currently working at Lob as a tech lead of the core services team
Favorite Memory: My most memorable achievement was badgering the 2009 car that did not turn around the land maneuverability course. It was a success (albeit our finishing position was only ahead of the DNFs).
Adam Baumgartner
Mechanical Engineering ’10
Drivetrain & Frame
Career: Honda R&D Americas Inc., Polaris Industries, XStream Trucking
Favorite Memory: I really enjoyed the opportunity to be captain of the team for 3 years and to be able to come back and see the later team-members continue to improve the program. Its really awesome to see something continue improving with insights from new faces.
Avik De
Engineering Mechanics ’10
Suspension & Frame
Career: Robotics Ph.D., Founded Ghost Robotics
Favorite Memory: After a really depressing first day in Montreal where Adam and I were the only attendees and we were struggling to even get the car into the trailer, I remember being on the verge of packing up and not even competing. In the end we stayed, Austin joined us, and it ended up one of my favorite competitions with lots of fun driving, and even Adam finishing the endurance race while holding the broken steering column between his thighs.
The contributions of all our alumni are important to us! So, if you’re a Blue Jay Racing Alum and want to be featured on this page, email the current team captain, and we’ll be happy to add you!