 Angela, thanks for joining us on This Is Purdue. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. So you've been a fan of racing for a long time. What's like your earliest memory of racing and of kind of falling in love with it? I have a very distinct memory of being, I don't know, pretty young, like maybe five years old. And our local track was Berlin Raceway up in Michigan. And I was there with my dad. And I'm sure my mom was there too. But I specifically remember my dad being there. He helped me out the steps. And I remember it being very scary, because there were these big gaps in between the steps. And he was helping me climb up. And we sat down. And he had bought these gargoyle sunglasses, which were popular at the time, because Dale Earnhardt had gargoyle sunglasses. And he picked me up to put me on his lap so he could watch. And his sunglasses fell off his head, and somebody stole them. So you talked about Dale Earnhardt. Was that like your favorite driver back then? Oh yeah, it was like borderline obsession, like really obsessed with him. Yeah, he was easily my favorite driver. Why was he your favorite driver out of all the other drivers? I guess because my dad liked him. So we just have that in common. I kind of picked up my love for racing for my dad. And so it was a common interest we had. And so I saw him rooting for Dale, so I did too. So I read also that you maybe wanted to become a driver at some point. But then you realized you had these really strong skills in math and science. So then you were like, I could be an engineer. How did that path come about? And how did that story come about? So I equate my want of being a driver to most little kids when they're like, I want to be a fireman. I'm going to be president. I'm going to be a doctor. I wanted to be involved in racing. I knew I really loved it. And then once I started to get older, I started to understand what I was good at, what I enjoyed. And that's kind of when I started thinking about, OK, well, what can I actually do with the things that I like and I'm good at, which math and science? And how can I apply that to something I like so that I can work in the field that I like doing something that I'm good at? And so that's kind of how I ended up going down this race engineering path, because engineering was a natural fit for me. And motorsports was the field that I wanted to be in. Yeah, and a lot of people aren't that lucky. They have passions, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll get to spend their whole career being around their passions. Were you in high school when you realized that you could really pursue motorsports as a career? What point did it really click that you could become an engineer in your passion of motorsports? So early in high school, I thought, well, I'm good at math. I'm good at science. What can I do with those? And I thought of traditional things like accounting or maybe all major in physics. And I didn't really grasp what engineering was or what engineers did, because the field is so broad. And as an engineer, you can do so many different things. And it didn't even really occur to me that engineering was a path until my dad said, we had to sit down when I was maybe a junior in high school. And he asked, what do you think you're going to do realistically in college? What are you going to major in? And I said, I really don't know. I just know I like math. And he was the one who said, you should really think about engineering. I think you'd be a natural fit. It would be great for you. And I don't think I questioned it after that point. I did a little research and understood a little more about what the field was. And here you are. Yeah. So let's transition to Purdue then. How did you know you said you lived in Michigan? How did you first find out about Purdue? I got a flyer in the mail. And I showed my dad and I was like, wow, wouldn't it be really cool if I could actually go here? And I didn't really think at the time that it was possible. I thought for sure, since I was young, that I was going to go to University of Michigan because it was a great engineering school. And Purdue wasn't even on my radar. And when we went and started visiting colleges, the first step on campus I just fell in love. And I knew that was where I had to go. I had to be at Purdue. And yeah, I know engineering is obviously a very hard degree to earn at Purdue. What was it like your first year? You're away from home for the first time and you're trying to immerse yourself in Purdue's culture and go to all these classes. What types of steps did you have to take to really buckle down and know that you were on the right track? I think it was in shock after my first year because I was used to being the best student. I was valedictorian. School was always easy for me. I never really had to try that hard and I was so good at it. And then I got to Purdue and it was really, really hard. And I suddenly wasn't the smartest person there. And I had to study and I had to try really hard to do just okay. And yeah, it was a shock, but my competitive nature kind of kicked in. And I was like, okay, well, either I buckle down and study harder and figure out how to do this or I'm not gonna be an engineer. And so I just did it. And what kind of skills did you learn, whether it's inside the classroom or outside the classroom? This is not a typical job, obviously. So how did Purdue kind of tee you up for this? I mean, the biggest thing I learned in school was how to think, how to problem solve because that's what I do day in and day out is I get presented with new problems every day and stuff that I am not an expert in that I don't really have any knowledge on. And I have to figure out, given, find, solve, what do I know about the problem? What am I trying to figure out and how am I gonna get there? And that was what my engineering degree gave me was that problem-solving technique. Right. I've heard that from other guests as well, but that was really key for them. Tell us more about the formula SAE that you were involved in at Purdue. Formula I got involved in I think my sophomore year. And I can't remember how I even found it. It was a friend of a friend who was like, hey, have you heard about formula? Do you know what it is? Because I think you'd be really interested in it. And I was kind of on the fence. And then I was all in as soon as I figured out what it was. It was an excellent experience for me because through your classes, obviously you get all of the practical knowledge and the book smarts. But Formula SAE gave me the teamwork aspect. You had to work to a deadline, produce a product. You got to actually compete and put the thing that you made, this race car to the test against other groups of students who had worked on the same project. So you kind of had a natural grading scale. There's no curve. Like you either, your car's either faster, it's not. You either designed it while you didn't. You also learned tangible skills, like working machine shop, you learned how to use all the machines. You learned basic mechanical skills, how to use tools, stuff like that. All of those skills were so invaluable. It was a really great experience. Do you have any favorite stories or like one favorite memory? I believe there's a stretch of time I stayed up for three days straight working on the car. For a race? Yeah, before competition. Yeah, it was in the final stretch and we were kind of a little bit behind schedule. And how did that happen? Just lots of coffee or? I don't drink coffee. I think we had a thing that year with grape soda. Oh, okay. And we, yeah, we bought it in bulk. So just lots of caffeine. Lots of grape soda. Yeah. You know, Purdue has ties to space, ties to NASA, a lot of engineers at NASA are Purdue alum. Is there anyone in the racing world that you've run into or is there a group of you guys that are engineers? There are Purdue engineers everywhere. I know it more from the engineering side. I mean, everywhere I've been, there's other Purdue engineers and there's a few right here in this building. And I mean, one of the most popular drivers in Ascot, Ryan Newman, he's a Purdue grad. Probably the most popular one, at least in the motorsports scene. But that's a great thing about Purdue is that wherever you go, there's someone who has that common tie with you. Do you guys like talk about Purdue stuff or is it like a bond or? Actually, one of the guys who works here with me is a really good friend and he and I actually did our senior design project together. And so we talk about that all the time, like, oh, hey, you remember when we did that? Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. Okay, so walk us through your career because you've been in NASCAR, now you're in IndyCar. I'm sure you started even smaller, kind of worked your way up. So tell us more about that. So straight out of college, I wanted to go into racing. I didn't find an opportunity right away and I did have an opportunity to work in the automotive field still. So I got an offer at Chrysler and it was for a rotational program. It offered me a chance to get my master's degree and it was a really great opportunity. So I took it. One of the great things about that opportunity was that they were lenient with where you got your degree from. So I went through the process and got Purdue approved for the degree program. So I did my master's degree through Purdue while I was working through my rotational program at Chrysler. So after I finished my rotations, then it was time to choose a permanent position. I had a spot lined up at Dodge Motorsports, which was a perfect fit for me. And two months before I was supposed to start that position, the Motorsports program shut down. So that was a bummer. And I had to figure out something else to do. So there's a smaller group of people there that are really passionate about performance vehicles and it's called SRT, Street and Racing Technology. And so being that it's a small group, it's kind of tough to get in, especially as a newer hire, but I found a spot there in SRT Drive Line and they took me on. And so that was my next two and a half years. I got to work on the very first Hellcat program, which was the 6.2 Supercharged. Really awesome. I got to do so many cool things, like we tested at the racetrack and I got to drive and we tested a lot at the drag strip and I got to drive a lot for that. And so that was all really great experience. And it wasn't really racing though. So fast forward a couple of years, a friend I had got a job at Rush Fenway Racing and he said, I know of another position that's opening up. If you're interested, yes, please. Because I still really had that passion. I knew I wanted to work in racing no matter what. So the position opened up and I applied and they took me on and I worked my way up at Rush Fenway from an assistant to the assistant engineer. I was like a super support role and then the next year I got moved up to managing that group and then the next year I got moved up to a race engineer in the Xfinity series. And then after half a year as a race engineer in Xfinity, I got moved up to a race engineer in the Cup Series. So I just kind of progressed through that. And then after four and a half years there, then I got an opportunity to come here to Chip Ganasi Racing and work in IndyCar, which was an absolute dream. And so I jumped on the opportunity. I was really excited to come back to Indiana, to get back to the Midwest, work on a more manageable schedule racing-wise. And there was a lot of more technical work that really interested me. So it was a natural fit and I'm so glad that I'm here. Yeah, walk us through your job because obviously it's different every day. It's different certain weeks leading up to races versus the off season. So tell us a little bit about your role. But in a very, a way that everyone can understand because I'm sure it's very technical. My job is different every single day, as he said. So my main role is data systems engineer. So there's an electrical box on the car and it collects data from hundreds of sensors and we have thousands of channels of data. And I set the calibrations and the logging rates and collect all that data and write math to make it usable and distribute that to the other engineers to use. And then I also work on tools to consume that data and make it easier to digest for the people who need to make the decisions. And how do you work with the driver when it comes to that and how to do the team of engineers kind of help, I guess the driver digest that too. So normally when like the driver will either ask for specific requests for his aids in the car and anything on the steering wheel or like cockpit controls I can just change those things directly. But then if it's something about how the car is handling normally the race engineer will handle those requests but a lot of times I'll help out with the data analysis side and getting data in front of the driver. So I'll work on things like developing a tool so that the driver can get data immediately when he comes into pit lane. As soon as he stops, he's got data in front of him and he can pull up the data and look at it himself because as he heard like a picture's worth a thousand words while trying to describe someone what the data looks like and where they're losing time compared to another driver. Like you can only describe so much but if you can put it in a visual format that's easier for them to visually see, okay, here's an ED compare of here's where I lost time I'm plus time here, I'm minus time here it's really easy to see for them. And then can you, when you talked about changing the steering wheel or like is the driver during races giving you that info and you can quick do that on the spot or do you have to wait till he's in the pit stop? So we can't send data to the car by rule while the car's running. So during practice we're making those changes on the fly and normally like I'm evaluating shift points and driver reaction time and changing like shift lights and shift patterns. If it's things on the steering wheel that he wants different or like lights different or driver alarms for like fuel or limiter time or stuff like that. Now I can change that stuff really quickly it'll take me a minute or two and send it to the car while he's in the pits and then between runs we can change it but normally once you set sail on the race you've got what you've got, yeah. You know you work in a male dominated industry do you find it harder to you know work the way up the ranks? Are you working twice as hard or do you think that as time passes it's getting better and there's more and more women coming into this field? How has that been with your career progression I guess? At the very beginning I felt like it was more difficult to get a foot in the door it was harder to get recognized. I definitely felt like I had to work harder to prove that I was capable and knew what I was doing all that sort of stuff and I think part of that too is just in the back of your mind you know that you haven't you know you haven't seen many other women around and there's probably a reason for that and you know in certain groups of people definitely not here at Ganassi but you know in previous roles there are certain people who you know don't want you there to be Frank I mean and it's sad that it's still that way I think it's good for you though because it makes you a better engineer I think you get better at your job as you go and then the other part that's really refreshing is that the longer I've been around the more women I've seen the number of females in the paddock has grown every single year one of the really fun things we do at Indy 500 is Kara Adams who's one of the Firestone Engineers she organizes this women of the Indy 500 photo and we take a grid photo on race day every year and it's really fun and interesting to see how every year the picture has grown in size and last year we had to take two pictures because there were so many of us which is really cool. That's amazing wow and then I know Chip Ganassi and PNC Bank are launching a special initiative for women in motorsports which is awesome tell us a little bit about that so that is really cool initiative by PNC Bank and it's just meant to give some females an opportunity to get a foot in the door and get some experience in the motorsports industry an opportunity that they might not otherwise get or might not otherwise consider which I think is really important, you know just those opportunities don't come very easily so I think it's something really great that PNC is doing and Chip Ganassi Racing is partnering with them to facilitate that with the women in motorsports program it looks like we may have a fellow female from Purdue Engineering which I am so excited about so yeah I hope to see her around the building and then is the goal to partner with you as a female engineer or just kind of learn from everyone on the team? The goal is just to immerse them fully in the culture so I'm sure that I'll be working with them but also everyone else from their respective groups will be too. When we go back to talking about the data and analyzing it and working with your driver what kind of impacts can these little tweaks make like when it comes to race day or you know have you seen anything that's like oh wow I really had this problem and then we solved it because of XYZ are there any like stories like that? I think a lot of what we do are incremental changes you don't often change a spring and have the car be a second faster especially when we go to Indy we're looking for fractions of a mile per hour and with stuff I work on there's no obvious upfront gain a lot of times it's you know working on tools that improve our efficiency. One of the tools I've been working on is the race field program and I've been working on it for I think two years now just like tweaking and tweaking and tweaking away but I get into race situations every once in a while where a feature I've added comes into play and it's like wow I was able to answer that question really quickly on the spot and I don't think other teams would be able to do that and that gives us an advantage and so that kind of stuff comes up all the time. So it's a lot of like little tweaks and changes over time yeah that okay okay. What you know when we talk about race seasons kicked off what is a typical week like when you're leading up to that race for the weekend? So I'll normally spend at least a day on the computer getting this setup ready for the data logger we're putting in a bunch of constants and motion ratios and suspension geometry all of these things that help all of these math channels that are running on board calculate correctly and then as the car is getting put together I'll come down and plug into the car and do a systems check. So we'll check every sensor in the car check the nominal voltage check the calibration and make sure that everything's working correctly program the steering wheels just do a once over on everything in the car then I'll have a couple days of just preparing data scenarios I'll spend time doing pre-race strategy pre-race fuel scenarios I'll be looking at previous race data stuff like that. What is the teamwork and the camaraderie like when it comes to race day? I'm sure it's high attention but what does it mean when I know Marcus won two races now what does all that teamwork kind of build up to when you win? It is just indescribable for me like last year at Detroit it was my first ever win and it felt like something I had been working toward my entire life and there were so many times that we were so close to winning or should have won and something small happened and we didn't and the number of things that have to go right for you to win a race is unimaginable and when it finally comes together it's like you almost can't believe it and then you've got this group of people who you spend so much time around and they're almost like family because you travel with them week in and week out and you spend all day with them at the shop every day to celebrate with them is it's a big deal. I'm sure. So when you think about there's a lot of special races throughout the IndyCar circuit but the Indy 500 is kind of the pinnacle right? That's the one. Yeah. What is it like preparing for that race and what does that day mean to you? It is incredibly stressful preparing for that race. There is no stone unturned and even simple things that are easy and you don't give a second thought on any other race weekend you will question a hundred times before you go into that race. The amount of preparation is just incredible and the amount of attention to detail and time that you spend on that one race is far and away more than any other race of the season. What's the excitement like that day? So my first year was 2020 and that was the year without fans and I will never forget it because I've been to the race as a fan and like the excitement is palpable like just all of the pomp and circumstance and like hearing back home in Indiana and like the pretty marching band coming and doing the walk down pit lane, all that stuff. It's just like an entire day of buildup and then that first year I went and it was just completely silent. Running a race in complete silence was something I will never forget because it was so strange. And then last year we had a limited capacity so it wasn't really like the Indy 500. It wasn't normal Indy 500. So really this year it's gonna be my first full-fledged Indy 500 as a participant. That's exciting, we're rooting for you. What is a week like when it's the off season out of curiosity? Do you guys still come into the office or what's that like? I would say I am just as busy in the off season as I am during the season. Normally you have projects like larger scale projects that you don't necessarily have time to work on or give your full attention to during the season. And so throughout the season I just have a list that just starts building up and over time I just prioritize those like okay like I really wanna work on, I really wanna rewrite the fuel strategy program. I really wanna do live metrics. I really wanna do this and this. And so you work on those projects and really it's a short period of time from the end of the season to the start of the next season because you've got testing jammed in there and you've got holidays and things like that. It goes by really fast. So you have to be super focused and set deadlines still even though you think like well you've got a couple months or a few months. You really don't. You've got 10 projects that you have to get done before the start of the season. So you're like okay I've gotta get this thing done in one week and that's all I have. Okay. So it's not just a piece of cake during the autumn? No, no. You were telling me before this that your husband also went to Purdue. Yes. But you guys met through motorsports? Yeah, so my husband Craig, he's a Purdue grad. He is older than me so we didn't actually go to Purdue at the same time but we kind of took a similar path. He went through mechanical engineering just as I did. He did formula SAE just like I did and then he took a job at Chrysler just like I did. But we met through a mutual friend at Chrysler when I was there as an intern and she knew that we were both really into racing and so we hung out for the first time and went to Mid-Ohio to an IndyCar race and it poured down rain on us and I guess it was meant to be because both of us had a great time. So your first date was at an IndyCar race? Yeah. That's amazing. Does he still work in racing? Yeah, he's actually an engine calibrator at Honda. Okay, so is that like a competitor? No, yeah, we run Honda cars so yeah, he works closely with the calibrators that I work with on my car. When you look back at your time at Purdue, why do you think Purdue is so unique and how did it set you up for something as unique as this job? The thing about Purdue is the engineering program is just so good. It's nationally ranked. It's really well respected. It doesn't matter where you go, you can say Purdue and people know what it is, what it stands for and how good of a school it is. It's instant respect. If you made it through the Purdue program, then people know what you're about. Having a Purdue degree is, it's part of my identity really. It's just an excellent school. What is the community and that Boilermaker spirit mean to you? Just that you can connect with someone no matter where you are. It wouldn't matter if I moved to Canada. I bet you whatever town I was in, I could find someone who went to Purdue. You can always find someone from Purdue and there's always, I don't know, just like a mutual respect because you both kind of know where you came from. Is there like a favorite class or professor or anything? Favorite professor. Yeah, Professor Crowdsgrill was one of my favorites. I mean, I had a few that I still remember and were really great. Professor Crowdsgrill is like one of the best teachers I've ever had just from the standpoint of making me excited about learning the topic he was teaching and helping me to understand it really well. He was just so good at it. I don't even understand how he did such a good job but I just loved him as a teacher. And then my professor for vehicle dynamics, Professor Starkey, he was just so great. And I worked with him on my senior design project and he was really flexible and helped us pick a project that was interesting to us and not really traditional and kind of down the racing path. And I just really appreciated his tie into the motorsports realm and his appreciation for what I was trying to accomplish with my senior design, not just to do a project and check the box but do something that actually meant something to me. Yeah, that's great. Is there anything else that you wanna share with our listeners? Boiler up. I love it. Okay, we are gonna do a few rapid fire questions but they're really easy. They're about Purdue. This is the first time I'm doing this so I'm testing it with you. Okay. Okay. What's your favorite spot on campus? The clap circle. I love the clap circle. That's amazing. I would not be able to think of something about it. Favorite Boiler Maker tradition? Ooh, running the fountains. Yeah. What's your next small step or giant leap personally or professionally? Winning the Indy 500 this year, I hope. I love that answer. Okay, that was it. You made it through. Oh, cool.