IMSA: Inside a season of STEM

Mazda Motorsports spent the 2014 season racing a pair of new SKYACTIV diesel-powered P2 prototypes in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, and behind the scenes, another new program was launched to raise awareness about careers in science, technology, engineering, and math at local high schools was undertaken by the team and driver Joel Miller. Here's Miller's story on a year spent racing and educating thousands of students on the possibilities within STEM.

My childhood dream was always to be a professional racing driver, and I have devoted everything I’ve had to get to where I am today. Turning back the clock to my early days in karting, I remember watching races on TV and asking my mom, “Who builds the cars?” Her response was: “Engineers.” 

That thought stuck with me and later during high school when it came time to think about college, the engineering seed was already planted; I knew I wanted to have an engineering degree. At that time, I was already part of Mazda’s first class in the MAZDASPEED Driver Development Program. The main reason for wanting an engineering background was to have something other drivers did not have. I wanted a competitive advantage. I knew that being able to understand the physics of the car, and being capable of speaking with team engineers on a higher level regarding how we wanted the car to perform would provide me with more tools to be a better driver. 

I’m thrilled that I pursued the engineering aspects of motorsports with the same vigor as my driving as everything I set out to achieve has happened, including earning by engineering degree, and more.

And as it turned out, my engineering degree allowed me an opportunity to do something that I never dreamed of, something that was very cool, and something that became one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done in motorsports.

It was December of 2013 when John Doonan, the director of motorsports for Mazda, first approached me about Mazda’s desire to launch a national STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) initiative. The program would leverage the new SKYACTIV prototype racing program. He wanted me, with my engineering degree, to be involved. I didn’t know exactly what this meant – in fact, nobody really knew what this meant – but I definitely wanted to be a part of it.

An amazing amount of work went into the concept, and before the first TUDOR Championship race of the year, Mazda’s “Racing Accelerates Creative Education” (R.A.C.E.) STEM educational outreach program would be launched at DeLand High School in January in support of the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

My first time seeing the presentation was at 11:30 p.m., the night before we were to present it. No pressure! John Doonan would kick off the presentation explaining why STEM was important to Mazda, and why we were doing this. Kyle Kimball, motorsports specialist at Mazda, would present the Science elements, I would present Technology and Engineering, and then Kyle and I would present Math together. John would then cover the 60+ careers related to motorsports that rely on STEM, which gets the students thinking. It goes way beyond drivers, mechanics and engineers. Doctors, lawyers, nutritionists, physical therapists, television production, safety equipment design…. and much more.

In addition to a presentation for the students, we brought a Mazda SKYACTIV prototype show car, put the school administrators and school district STEM leaders’ names on the car, and we also created a school-specific autograph card. We also dressed the school principal in a Mazda racing suit and helmet and had some fun with students by introducing them as “Mazda’s newest factory driver.”

As I mentioned, at the beginning we didn’t really know what we had. Our first focus group – 800 high school students from DeLand High – would be our first test. Would they be compelled to pay attention? Would they be compelled to pay more attention in Math class?

As it turns out, it was a home run. At the end of our presentation, we have time set aside for a Question & Answer period. We were blown away by the quality of the questions. The Q&A became our favorite part of every presentation that we did.

We left DeLand feeling pretty excited about the response from the students, the faculty and the Volusia County STEM leaders. Mitch Moyer, the principal at DeLand said afterward, “The Mazda Motor Sports experience at DeLand High School proved to be an absolutely phenomenal experience for our students and our staff. The presentation, which was interactive and highly interesting, and it exceeded my highest expectation.”

STEM is the foundation for being involved in motorsport. Not just from my position at Mazda Motorsports, but ask anyone in the paddock and each will tell you they need to know some form of science, possibly understand a new technology, come up with an engineering design, or use math to form a conclusion to perform their job. In my mind, having a deep understanding of STEM allows you to have a competitive advantage in many disciplines.

I think the scope and importance of what we were doing really hit home for me in May. We were scheduled to bring our program to Martin Luther King Jr. High School in downtown Detroit. Detroit, as you probably know, has had its share of struggles, but that didn’t stop the Detroit Public Schools administrators from finding a way to bus students in from 11 different high schools for our presentation. This commitment from DPS blew us all away.

“We are honored to host this amazing and thought-provoking experience on the campus of King High School,” said Alycia Meriweather, Executive Director, Detroit Public Schools Office of Science. “DPS emphasizes the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to strengthen our overall academic curriculum. This event connects our students to the STEM field in an exciting new way through motorsports.” Their commitment to bring students in to learn about STEM through our program was incredible.

While at a school in Chicago, a teacher stood up during our presentation and said, “This is exactly what we are teaching right now,” while we were showing a simple math related problem that our team engineers perform for every racetrack. As simple as the problem was, it showed that STEM disciplines start early and provide a foundation. I thought it was great that the teacher made the comment for all to hear because it showed the students that we were not talking about stuff they may never have the opportunity to need or understand. It showed that what they are learning now, at a middle school level in this case, will continue to be used much later in life.

Other highlights this year came from when we brought students out to the track. Several of the promoters for our TUDOR Championship events graciously offered free tickets for all of the students that participated in the presentations. We would talk to them at the school for over an hour, show slides, videos, demonstrations and more, which would give them an insight to what the racing environment it is like. 

And then, when they came to the track, their faces would light up because they could hear, smell, and feel the excitement. When we were at Circuit of The Americas in Texas, a group of students from Akins High School visited the track prior to qualifying, and they sat up on the trackside engineering stand during a session where we gave them radios so they could hear STEM in action. Afterward, you could get the smile off their faces. Those moments are very cool when you can take the sport you love and share it with someone who has an interest to be part of it.

I really enjoyed all of our content and all of the STEM elements this year. In the technology section, sensors, telemetry, and car design methods are talked about, which the robotics clubs in the high schools really find interesting. When talking about engineering, we do an aerodynamic demonstration showing wing angle and flow separation. This is the subject I really enjoy talking about and you could see the kids nodding when they got it. When I was in school I did my own reading about aerodynamics for fun; it is something that has always fascinated me so I enjoyed sharing some rudimentary concepts on the topic with the students. The math word problems usually elicit a groan at first, but then the light bulb goes on when they see its importance in our racing program.

Mazda’s R.A.C.E. STEM program ended up visiting 12 schools in 2014. We spoke with nearly 12,000 students. Our goal was simple – if we can reach a handful of students during each presentation, inspire them to go a direction in life that they may have never thought of before, and along the way make some new race fans, then we did a great job. 

We used the Mazda Motorsports program as the case study, but were careful to not make the presentation a Mazda commercial… they would have tuned out immediately. When students think about motorsports they think of the driver, the engineer, and maybe the team owner. We show them that yes, these people are part of motorsport but without other key personnel the sport would not function and that opens the door to so many career opportunities. 

The last idea we leave them with is everything about STEM is great but we need people to use STEM in all the areas of the sport. This is how we hope to inspire them toward a direction that they may have never thought possible before our presentation.

I want to offer a sincere thanks to Mazda for allowing me to be part of this program. I can’t wait to get back into the high schools in 2015 and meet the next wave of STEM superstars!

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