Huibert Mees, Franco Cimatti, and Norman Garrett

Franco Cimatti

Georgia Tech graduates and professors have made a significant impact on the field of transportation design and engineering. The Georgia Tech Auto Show seeks to promote the public’s knowledge of this contribution through the guest speakers at the show and featuring them on this site. Our hats are off to those in the Georgia Tech community that have made noteworthy contributions to the field.

Sterling Skinner is a 1995 Georgia Tech Graduate in Mechanical Engineering who came back to Tech to be the Director of Instructional Labs in the Mechanical Engineering Department.  In his position Sterling purchases, sets up, maintains, trains, and write manuals for experiments using lasers, robots, pumps, servo motors, and other types of toys.

In addition to all of his busy schedule Skinner is the founder and main organizer of the Georgia Tech Auto Show, now in its seventh year.  Sterling has a love for all cars and a knack for bringing people together. The Auto Show is the culmination of both.

Skinner believes that this show is a way to let people reconnect with Georgia Tech who might no feel comfortable at a black tie alumni function as well as including students, staff, faculty, fans and others who all share a connection to Tech and a love for vehicles. Skinner points out that there are great numbers of tech graduates that have made some of the most important engineering and design strides in the automotive industry and it is great to be able to celebrate the talent.

Although jhe does have other vehicles, Sterling loves his Porsche and can even be seen driving it with no top, since it has no top, through the rain, probably sitting in two inches of water. And it seems that he does not even notice!

Joe Foster

Joe Foster drives Porsche racing cars in the ALMS and Grand Am series. Foster graduated with a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech. Joe also teaches driving safety and was recently written up for it.

Bryan Nesbitt was a student at Georgia Tech for his freshman year in the Program of Industrial Design in the College of Architecture. He later transferred to Art Center College of Design in California before being hired by Daimler-Chrysler. He designed the PT Cruiser there. Bryan presently works for General Motors as the Executive Director of GM Design Europe overseeing the new shapes of car brands such as SAAB and Opel.

Mel Beardsley  earned a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1939, and worked for the Engineering Experiment Station, now Georgia Tech Research Institute. He also worked for several firms, including Chrysler Corp., before being called back to active duty.  After the war Beardsley worked for Northrop, on the development of the Flying Wing, a very high tech long-range bomber which was all wing–no fuselage or tail. In one of his various career endeavors Beardsley who was very interested in keeping beaches from eroding, co-invented the “hovercraft”.

Wayne Yawn is a graduate of mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and designer of the Kudzu DLY Le Mans prototype racing car that won the 2001 SRP-1 title at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The car was driven by Jim Downing in that race. Both Wayne and Jim Downing attended the 2004 Georgia Tech Auto Show with the Kudzu DLY on display.

Joey Clanton is a NASCAR Busch series driver. Clanton graduated in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1999.

John Leverett is the Chief Engineer of Panoz Auto and designer of the Panoz Esperante under Danny Panoz in Hoschton, Georgia. He started at Georgia Tech in mechanical engineering but later transferred to Southern Tech before graduating.

Micky Bly Mickey Bly is a graduate of Georgia Tech in with a degree in mechanical engineering. In October 2009, Mickey Bly has replaced Bob Kruse as executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries at General Motors.Micky Bly, has been director of hybrid vehicle integration. For the last several years, Bly has led the teams that did the production development of GM’s two-mode hybrid trucks and SUVs. More recently, the Volt integration work has also been part of Bly’s responsibilities.

John Evans founded Evan’s Automobiles and designer of hand-built ultra high performance street cars. John graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in chemistry.