Posted on | by ben

Here is the third and final installment where we introduce to you our last two panelists who will be on stage Friday after the races at 2pm. They will be asked questions by our moderator and then also open for questions from you in the audience. So if you’ve ever wanted to ask a question of someone you see here, be sure to show up!

Below we hear from our current student panelists as they tell us a bit about themselves. Some of these names you might recognize, but unless you’re a current student or very recent grad, you probably are not familiar.

 BAApicAubrey Higginson – Fringe ’15

I’m Aubrey Higginson, a fifth year senior that has been involved in Fringe buggy since my freshman year. My first two years I was a pusher who occasionally helped out in the shop, but three years ago I caught the bug and really started becoming involved as a mechanic. I participated heavily in building Beacon, Bolt, and NBXV (Fringe’s newest).

At the beginning of my senior year another Fringe mechanic/pusher, Mike Velez, and I decided to pursue an experimental project and build a nine wheeled buggy, X1 (that some have so lovingly been calling millibuggy). He graduated, I took over the project, and the buggy is finally rolling this semester. I’ve experienced many of the different aspects of buggy: being an A team pusher, designing, planning and building buggies, giving up my sleep to rolls, and finally this year being the Buggy Book Chair. I’ve been with Fringe through some interesting years and I’ve loved every second.

NatalieHong_HeadshotNatalie Hong – CIA ’18

Hi! I am Natalie a freshman in CIT majoring in Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. I was drawn to CIA (and buggy itself) simply because of the sheer passion of its current members. I probably have more fun driving Orca than should (I’ve blasted Christmas music from Orca before, much to the excitement/annoyance of CIA). Outside of buggy, I draw cartoon versions of buggies, sing in the CMU Chorus, conduct research at the Minden Lab in the Mellon Institute, and yell at my friends for making fun of my height.

 

BAA-Tom Wood

Moderator – Tom Wood – PiKA ’74

As our final panel participant, we introduce to your our moderator for the afternoon, the man who should need no introduction. He might only be unfamiliar if you are new to buggy but everyone who watches the races this year will see him open the course as this year’s Grand Marshall. While he isn’t presenting his history of buggy talk this year, Tom has one of, if not the most in-depth knowledge of buggy history and is always willing to share.