Our Solar Leads

Sidharth Babu
Team Captain
Sidharth is a fourth year Electrical and Computer Engineering student from Nashville, Tennessee. He has been on the team for four years (way too long), and has completely forgotten what a normal Saturday looks like. As the Team Captain, he pretends to know what's going on, obsessively checks Slack, and tries to keep our brilliant leads and members on track to building the best car possible. Whenever he gets a bit of free time to himself however, he enjoys cooking, working out, and playing sand volleyball. He also occasionally bakes brownies (he says Ghirardelli makes the best box mix).

Manthan Upadhyaya
Electrical Lead
Manthan is a Master's Student specializing in Integrated Circuits and Systems. As electrical lead, he manages the design and manufacturing of the electrical system. This might be ill advised considering the sheer amount of side projects he has blown up, but we don't talk about that...
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Philip Bortolotti
Dynamics Lead
Philip is a third-year Mechanical Engineering major from Houston, Texas. Outside of LHR he enjoys baking, photography, and collecting vinyl records. He is also the unofficial socials lead of the Solar team, with a known love for karaoke.
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Jacob Yan
Chief Engineer
Jacob is a fourth year Mechanical Engineering Integrated Masters Student from Plano, Texas. As the Chief Engineer, he oversees both the Electrical and Mechanical divisions and is definitely 100% without a doubt as helpful on electrical design as he is on mechanical. Outside of LHR, Jacob enjoys D&D, cooking, playing badminton, and playing trumpet - more commonly known as "the noise cone". Jacob is pretty sure that it's possible to sleep more than 7 hours in a night, but he hasn't been able to confirm that for himself.
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Nathan Lee
Mechanical Lead
Nathan Lee is a third year Mechanical Engineer from Houston, Texas. As mechanical lead, he manages the design and manufacturing of the mechanical system. This might be ill advised considering the sheer amount of side projects he has blown up, but we don't talk about that...

Ryan Edward Carpio-Brown
Electromechanical Lead
Ryan Carpio-Brown is a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Belton, Texas. As Electromechanical lead, he directs the design and manufacturing of all electronics enclosures, their cooling systems, external wiring, and miscellaneous components of the solar vehicle. He would love to partake in the things he enjoys: kayaking on Ladybird Lake, piano, and watching space documentaries. Unfortunately, being a nerd is a full-time job.

Tianda Huang
BPS Lead
Tianda Huang is a Master's Student specializing in Systems for Machine Learning. As Battery Protection Systems lead, he manages the systems for protecting the batteries. Outside of LHR, he indulges in running, volleyball, and piano.
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Roy Mor
Power Generation Lead
Roy is a third-year Electrical and Computer engineering major from Plano, TX. As Power Gen lead, he spends 90% of his time inhaling lamination fumes and 10% of his time ensuring the array produces power. Outside of LHR, he enjoys reading and rock climbing despite his crippling fear of heights.

Ishan Deshpande
Controls Lead
Ishan is a third year Electrical and Computer Engineering student from Austin, TX. As the Controls lead, he manages any driver interaction with the car, internal/external lights, and motor control. Instead of going to bed at a reasonable time, he likes to listen to, write, and perform music.
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Estella Zhao
Power Systems Lead
Estella is a second year Electrical and Computer Engineering student from Austin, Texas. She has a strong love of climbing and cats.
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Yejean Kim
Data Adquisition Lead
Yejean (yay-JEEN) is a junior from Plano, TX studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. When she is not at LHR, she enjoys hiking/running, watching horror movies, and eating her favorite snack, Whales, the best fish-shaped baked snack cracker.
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Elizabeth Chong
Operations Lead
Elizabeth is a third year Art History student who works with Corporate Relations and Public Relations for the Solar Team. Outside of LHR, she enjoys photography, art, fashion, and hanging out with her cats!
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Phoenix Saavedra
Aerodynamics Lead
Phoenix is a second year Mechanical Engineering student from Keller, Texas (DFW area). As the Aerodynamics Lead, she works with CAD, composites, and her amazing team to design and manufacture the body of the solar car. Outside of LHR, Phoenix enjoys running, playing sand volleyball, thrift shopping and rewatching New Girl!

Sreekar Ponnapalli
Ergonomics Lead
Sreekar is a second-year Mechanical engineering major from Frisco, TX. Outside of LHR, he loves to play basketball, hike, and sing.