Leadership

Executive Leadership

Valentina Diaz

President

Valentina Diaz is a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Buford, GA. As President, Valentina is responsible for representing the team externally, as well as managing the business, outreach, and operations divisions. In her free time, Valentina enjoys journaling, baking cookies, and taking walks with friends.

Alex Abraham

Halo Vehicle Lead

Alex Abraham is a third-year Materials Science and Engineering major. As Halo Vehicle Lead, he is responsible for coordinating the mechanical and electrical divisions to ensure the proper design, manufacturing, and assembly of our next vehicle. In his free time, he enjoys bouldering, cooking, and spikeball.

Joseph Tappen

Horizon Vehicle Lead

Joseph Tappen is a second-year Mechanical Engineering major from Bainbridge Island, WA. As Horizon Vehicle Lead, he is responsible for coordinating the mechanical and electrical divisions to conceptualize and design our 2029–2030 vehicle. In his free time, Joseph enjoys sailing, hockey, cello, and blacksmithing.

Tyler Roche

Electrical Lead

Tyler Roche is a fourth-year Computer Engineering major with System Architecture and Distributed System / Software Design threads. As the Electrical Lead, he is responsible for the design, fabrication, and integration of all of the electrical systems for our next vehicle. In his free time, he trains martial arts and cooks/bakes.

Sean Breton

Mechanical Lead

Sean is a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering major from Hattiesburg, MS. As the Mechanical Lead, he is responsible for all mechanical systems on our vehicles. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, cooking, and laying in the sun.

Ian Causseaux

Race Operations Lead

Ian is a fifth-year Mechanical Engineering major from North Georgia. As the Operations Lead, he is responsible for any time our vehicles are out of shop, i.e. mock races, races, and testing. In his free time, he enjoys doing origami, 3D printing, photography, and hiking.

Raffi Toby

Business Lead

Raffi Toby is a second-year Mechanical Engineering major from North Reading, MA. As Business Lead, he is responsible for managing team finances, making purchases, and expanding our network of corporate partners. In his free time, Raffi enjoys playing the piano and saxophone, watching and playing most sports, and hiking.

Cici Jia

Outreach Lead

Cici Jia is a third-year Industrial Design major. As the Outreach Lead, she is responsible for overseeing the recruitment process as well as external relations. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, watching movies, and karaoke with friends.

Faculty & Technical Advisors

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 plans and incubated new businesses and services to support 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 has 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 Create-X 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.