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Printer-Friendly ModeMechanical Engineering major manages racing team
February 27, 2006 —
Like most students at SVSU, Hussam El-Jobran has received his fair share of parking tickets on campus. But while most students accumulate theirs as a result of expired meters or parking in faculty lots, the 26-year-old El-Jobran has been issued many of his for just working late into the 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. window when tickets are handed out. That's the price one pays, though, for being the team manager of Cardinal Formula Racing (CFR) and setting a goal of trying to win a world championship.
El-Jobran has been team manager since the end of competition in the spring. He had been recommended for the position and spoke with Brooks Byam, Cardinal Formula Racing's faculty advisor, about leading this year's team. After that conversation, El-Jobran has not looked back, keeping his eyes on the World Championships beginning May 17 in Michigan at the Ford Proving Grounds in Romeo. But to really appreciate where El-Jobran is hoping to take the team, it is important to examine the road he himself has already traveled to get here.
A Toronto native, El-Jobran graduated high school in 1998 and took a job in retail management so that he could save money for school. Two years later, he enrolled in a specialized two-year Aircraft Maintenance Engineering program at Centennial College in his hometown.
As part of that program, El-Jobran spent the summer of 2001 working at Buttonville Municipal Airport in Toronto and later worked there full time after he graduated from Centennial.
His time there did not last long. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 crippled the aircraft industry and layoffs increased. El-Jobran was one of many who lost their job at Buttonville when he was let go in November of 2002.
After a brief stint in retail again, El-Jobran decided to head back to school. Several of his friends were attending SVSU through a collaborate program with an electronics college in Canada and, on a whim, he enrolled for the fall semester of 2003.
While El-Jobran realizes this was not the path he had originally anticipated, he still feels fortunate for how things turned out after he was let go.
"I think it was a very good thing that it happened," he says. "It allowed me to get more experience and now there are more opportunities for me and more things I can explore and go into."
One of the things he decided to explore was Cardinal Formula Racing. El-Jobran joined the team in Sept. 2004 as an engineer and immediately fell in love with the program.
"I've kind of always been interested in designing things ... and trying to make things better," he says. "I always took things apart when I was a kid and tried to put them back together."
It was only natural, then, that El-Jobran combined his love of putting things together with his experience in the aircraft industry to help him in his position as team manager. According to El-Jobran, Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) regulations and aircraft regulations have a great deal in common since both are safety oriented with strict rules as to what can and cannot be done.
And while the difference between retail and Formula SAE may be great, El-Jobran is able to incorporate things he learned while working as a retail manager into how he manages the team.
"I learned quite a bit about dealing with people," he says, "but it's different because you're not paying these people. You have to get [them] in here because they want to be here."
One way El-Jobran tries to do that is by giving team members the opportunity to embark on big projects and help them feel like a special part of the team. Allowing individual team members to have their own projects, he says, encourages members to continue working.
"The one thing I've done this year more than anything is give people an opportunity to participate," he says.
Still, El-Jobran realizes that part of that participation just involves having fun.
"You have to try to keep people as happy as possible," he says. "The most important thing is to help people realize that they're having fun and learning at the same time."
After graduation, El-Jobran says he plans on pursuing a master's degree but will probably look for work first. When he does decide to enter a graduate program, he says it will probably be in the aircraft industry because it is something he enjoyed while he was doing it.
In the meantime, El-Jobran is looking more towards the future of Cardinal Formula Racing and helping develop a successful program for years to come.
"It's really important to keep the name of Cardinal Formula Racing known to everyone," he says, "and keep a strong FSAE program here."