PRE's first two years of existence were made possible by determined students and supportive faculty who pushed through the challenges and laid the groundwork for our future successes.
President: Hafeez Sulaimon '15
Hafeez is a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering major. He is currently working at Pratt & Miller Engineering.
In 2012, Luke Amber '15 was a freshman with a keen interest in engineering design competitions. His professors told him that Princeton, being traditionally theory-focused, had no student teams that participated in such competitions - but they encouraged him to start a team of his own. Two of Luke's classmates (Hafeez Sulaimon '15 and Jeremy Mehl '15) caught wind of his vision, and also wanted to make it a reality. With the support of Professors Michael Littman and Luigi Martinelli, machine shop manager Glenn Northey, technical instructor Jonathan Prevost, and other faculty and staff, the three friends founded Princeton Racing Electric.
2015 Formula Hybrid Competition
Clockwise from bottom left: Santiago Aguirre '18, Luke Amber '15, Joe Yates '17, Kirk Robinson '17, Tarik Dzanic '18, Ben Sorkin '17, Nathaniel Kavaler '18.
The first competition we attended was the 2014 Formula Hybrid Competition at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Hafeez, Jeremy, and Luke attended this competition alone and without a car, just there to learn and gather advice from the other teams.
The following school year (2014-2015), PRE grew to 10 members. We brought our first car to the 2015 Formula Hybrid Competition on a rented utility trailer. The car was not fully operational and did not pass technical inspections, but the knowledge and experience gained from these two years provided the framework on which PRE continued to grow.