Alumni Update: Ryan Lee

Ryan Lee has been up to a lot since his departure from Tino. After graduating in 2015, he has proven that staying consistent with hobbies pays off. Not only has he interned at Tesla’s quality engineering department working on the Model S Plaid, but he has also driven and designed formula SAE race cars for Spartan Racing at San José State University.

Said Lee, “Starting in middle school, I was super into [radio control] airplanes. I was building my own from scratch and I probably put thousands of dollars into the hobby itself. So I was super into aerospace. [...] I was into it before the whole big drone mass hobbyists came in.”

Although he now works with cars, they were initially his side hobby. Driving his cousin’s BMW M3 was what first sparked his interest. Said Lee, “My whole dad’s side of the family is into racing. So I kind of looked a little bit into autocrossing. I was into cars as well. This is one of the reasons I joined formula SAE and joined the aerodynamics team.” Autocrossing is a timed competition in which drivers have to navigate a racetrack comprised of traffic cones and it is focused on demonstrating the handling capabilities of cars more than just straight-line speed.

Lee later went on to spend three years as an Aerodynamics designer for Spartan Racing, having designed Spartan Racers 9, 10 and 11. Said Lee, “All three years I was doing side pods and underbody, so in Formula One that’s the holes or the little pods on the side of the car between the front and rear tires that take in air to cool the radiator, so the radiators are housed within them. And that is also [...] used to create downforce on the car. The more downforce you have on the vehicle, the harder it pushes down on the car and it means you get more grip.” In fact the most expensive, exotic hypercars create hundreds of pounds of downforce, such as a Ferrari LaFerrari.

During the pandemic’s peak, Lee interned for 10 months at Tesla to work on the Model S Plaid, the company’s highest performing version of its flagship sedan — and the quickest accelerating car currently in production — before leaving to complete his masters.

Said Lee, “[In] quality, we’ll look into that and be like, ‘How can we improve

this?’ and what are the weak spots in the production process for the design that needs to be adjusted.” In particular, Lee worked on closures within the Model S Plaid chassis, meaning that he worked on anything with metal that could swing open.

In regards to his time at Tino, Lee felt that his classes adequately prepared him for the rigor of college courses. Said Lee, “I took AP Physics C with Mr. Williams and Physics Honors. And then I also took Calc AB with Ms. Jaehnig. I’d say those classes actually mimicked college pretty well. [Arguably], AP Physics at Cupertino High School is more difficult than engineering physics at San José State. Just because a lot of people [at] Cupertino High School [who] take AP Physics [...] know what they want to do [...] whereas the people in SJSU who take physics, they need to take it [in order to graduate] so they haven’t gone hardcore into it.”

One of the key benefits of working on fast cars is that you get to drive them. While the Tesla Model S P100D in Ludicrous Mode was the quickest car that he has ever driven, going 0–60mph in 2.28 seconds, Lee notes that he has experienced even more thrilling rides. Said Lee, “the Formula SAE car is probably the most exhilarating I’ve been in because I’ve driven Lamborghinis and Ferraris but the Formula SAE car definitely pulls the hardest. [...] It’s insane because the tires are super sticky. So once you make a turn, your head smacks the side of the headrest because it’s super hard. Since the [Formula SAE] car only weighs 420lbs, the car can go from 0–60mph in 3.2 seconds.”

His advice to students interested in going into aerospace engineering and other competitive fields in the workforce, is to do their research. Said Lee, “If you know what you want to major in [...] take a look at the job descriptions and see what skills they want, and then it’s up to you in four years to sculpt yourself into the person that they want to hire ”

“[AS AN INTERN], THE TESLA MODEL S PLAID WAS MY ENTIRE JOB. RYAN LEE ”

Cupertino High School class of 2015 graduate shares his experience racing and designing Formula SAE cars and Teslas. FEATURES | 13