A university education can only do so much. While it surely broadens horizons, opens doors, helps people grow professionally and personally, seeking out other activities boosts your skills for the real world. Those who lance at the opportunity to join extracurricular programs to enhance their studies on campus mix theory with hands-on practice, which is the case of Bold’s newest engineers. This group of go-getters signed up for the Formula Student program which challenges budding engineers from around the world to design, build, test, and race a small-scale formula style racing car. This program demands dedication and passion which is just the kind of talent Bold seeks out. Likewise, Bold fits these young engineers’ idea of the right company to join. There is no risk of getting lost in a complex organization with countless rungs, but rather they get personable experience and attention from their peers and veteran colleagues in an atmosphere that promotes personal and professional growth. Bold’s team is designed in a way to encourage and facilitate the exchange of ideas to bring forth innovative projects for all types of applications. Without further ado, Bold would like to introduce Roger Martinez, Roger Pujol, Marc Ruzafa, Victor Hernandez and Edu Mauri– past Formula Students who are Bold’s newest team members.
Roger Martinez
The automotive industry seems to be second nature for Roger Martinez. In his first year at Dynamics UPC Manresa, he started his own group ‘Motostudent’ to begin building a motorbike from scratch. It was only two years later that he joined the Formula Student program. In this program, he became a part of the aerodynamic and composite section. In his last year in this program, he was in charge of a project that aimed to create a futuristic electric prototype.
These days, Bold is tapping into his know-how in the post of Jr Composite Designer for Formula 1 and Hypercars. Regardless, he has his sights set on expanding from motorsport and hypercars into Bold’s battery team. Even before joing us, he had been keeping an eye on Bold’s company activity. For him, Bold stood out as one of the only companies in Catalonia, or even Spain, for its specific participation in the demanding world of motorsport among others. This passion for all that spins, especially cars and motorbikes has been deep-seated in him as long as he can remember. “I’m anxiously looking forward to bringing all I learned during my time at Formula Student to a dynamic and exigent work atmosphere.” That’s the spirit, Roger!
Roger Pujol
In ETSEIB, Roger studied Industrial Engineering. It was also there that he became part of the Formula Student team for two years, both spent in the aerodynamics department. He went on to spend two years as a testing engineer for Rücker Lypsa in Nissan while finishing up his degree in Barcelona. Following his dream of working in F1, he went for a Masters in Motorsport at Oxford Brookes University in England. There he signed up once again for the Formula Student program. However, COVID-19 came along which meant leaving the project he was working before its completion.
Author credit: Maru
Once he completed the Masters program, he returned to Barcelona where he was taken on by Btech as a CAE Engineer. Bold has been delighted to count on Pujol since last May as one of our hardworking Composite Design Engineers. Just as he had hoped, he is now officially working on F1 projects. In addition to creating the tooling necessary for the composite pieces he is designing, he also runs FEA simulation for other projects. When asked about his time in Formula Student, he affirms that all the different areas of engineering he has participated in has helped him be a more efficient worker. Afterall, testing and simulation are the natural steps that follow the design of a part.
Photo courtesy of Roger Pujol – Oxford Brookes Racing 2021
Marc Ruzafa
During the last two years, Marc Ruzafa was a team member of the Formula Student Barcelona eMotorsport which is one of the Catalan Politechnic University (UPC) teams. In the first year, Ruzafa was in the Chassis & Composites department. The second year, he became the head of the very same department. Marc had been quite keen on this program since he began studying at UPC, so he his initial plan was to make the most use of his degree studies by applying his newly gained knowledge in this program during his senior year before graduating. At first, Ruzafa joined the Bold team as an assistant to the designers on a few projects. Since then, he became fluent with the Catia program and has been promoted to full-time Design Engineer. His passion for motorsport and engineering goes way back, so it is like a dream come true for him to make this his career. When asked about what he contributes to Bold, he modestly replied “My knowledge about design and manufacturing composite solutions, which is basically everything I learned in my time at Formula Student.” Bold knows that Ruzafa offers more than that. Marc offers his hard-work and persistence as well as his eagerness to do a job well done.
Author credit: Partenfelder
Victor Hernandez
Víctor Hernandez studied at Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB). He took great interest in Formula Student since he saw it as the perfect opportunity to learn from making real projects, and more specifically, by making a car from zero. Like Ruzafa, he was yearning for a chance to transfer all the theory he learned from his professors into real life. In his first year in the program, Hernandez joined the vehicle dynamics department, working on the wheel assembly and tire modelling. This first year in Formula Student gave him the know-how for his second year. In fact, Victor was elected Team Leader. While he worked on the vehicle dynamics department, he also became responsible for managing the whole team. This invaluable experience linked him with all other departments and expanded his grasp on what goes into the ins and outs of vehicular designing, testing and manufacturing. At Bold, Victor’s main role is project manager for the battery department which entails purchasing and following-up on various projects. When asked why he wanted to work for Bold, he points out that “Bold is attractive for their drive which they demonstrate each day. It is not only through motorsport projects, but also in all the other projects they have in the works. I also believe that I can really learn a lot from my very talented colleagues.” Hernandez has shown us in his short time on the team that he shines most when presented with challenging projects. His drive to keep learning and improve only adds to Bold’s competitive edge.
Edu Mauri
Edu Mauri is another prime example of a new Bold employee that spend two years in a Formula Student program, namely the Spanish Formula Student Team BCN eMotorsport. While in this fast-paced hands-on program, Mauri’s role was a Powertrain engineer working on a high-voltage battery. Before joining the team, he felt that he was just a student in the Barcelona Industrial Engineering school, ETSEIB. After three years of studying and barely any real-life application of the theory, he decided it was time to sign up for school’s Formula Student to start amplifying his skills and know-how as an engineer. At this time, he craved jumping right into the world of electric vehicles. Two years of hard work later, he looks back with no regrets. Indeed, he got even more than he bargained for from the overall experience. Now at Bold, Mauri is one of our trusted junior engineers who works tirelessly on anything related to designing and developing batteries. This includes battery cell study and battery management systems (BMS). He gives credit to his Formula Student years as “…opening up the world of batteries which is constantly growing. I also felt I acquired a good set of basic knowledge about cell chemistry, battery development and even lithium cell parameterization with tools like Python and MATLAB for data analysis.” Formula Student gave him a taste of what is to come for what is sure to be a successful career at Bold Valuable Tech.
Our sincerest and warmest welcome
Bold is proud to see the impression we have made on the newest engineers to enter the competitive world of motorsport. As it seems, the common factor among all these pre-seasoned engineers is that they all feel that Bold provides them with an atmosphere energized as we build things together as a team in an environment that revolves around growing our employees’ talent and skills in the process. The spirit of Formula Student lives on in Bold as the demands for concentration and perfection push all who are involved to improve themselves and the solutions at hand. Welcome to our team and thank you for pouring all your enthusiasm into our projects for the clients we serve.