We recently had the chance to connect with Maxwell Chen and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Maxwell , it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Sim racing on Iracing. I click the button and next thing I know I am exhausted with a sore back and hands with 5 hours passed.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello everyone. My name is Maxwell Chen, I am a 4th year Mechanical Engineering student at UCI, the founder of UCI’s Sim Racing Club, and endurance racing team. What we do is we stuff college students into race cars and put them into a demolition derby.
Well, not quite.
Our club, Anteater Sim Racing (ASR) is an organization that lowers the entry barrier of motorsport to college students. Racing is inherently expensive and a daunting sport for people to dip their toes in, what our club provides is the full process to transform interested students to aspiring racers. We start people in Sim racing in UCI’s esports arena, get them to participate in autocross or local track days, and eventually support them to race in a endurance series that we prefer: the 24 hours of lemons.
Besides drivers, we also offer pit crew and other positions that are invaluable to automotive engineers of the future, extending our influence beyond just people who just wants to drive. So far, we have given more than 15 drivers and pit crews the opportunity in motorsport that would not be possible in during the university period.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I would say that tearing my ACL falling from a 30ft ski park jump has really shaped my worldview. Most men say they are good at driving, and most drivers/racers say they are in control. I used to be one of them. Note that I am still young to a point where I never really took consequences of my own doing. That one 3 second jump costed me almost 5 month of mobility and doing things normally, and made me recognize my personal limits and critical decision making.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
One thing to say to my younger self is to trust in your abilities, you have what it takes, just go full out to chase your dreams. I think one of my biggest regret was not having enough self confidence in my elementary to high school years. I didn’t know that I have what it takes to accomplish things, so I just end up not putting my full effort to try to do it. I left things undone half way, enjoyed only instant feedback things(games), and was reluctant to learn or try new things. Then I had a epiphany in the end of my high school years, where I had a eruption of self confidence, leading my to try different things, and as you know some times go out of my range of abilities.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I would say so. I am not the kind of person to wear different masks when meeting different person. I display my true self, maybe sometimes under the professional hat or funny hat, but overall I don’t shy away from things I love or things I don’t like. I am very persistent in pursuit of what is just and true to me. When I see unfair or unjust things, I would be the one to stand up and say things, even if that means losing my job, and I have done that to office politics in my school before. I believe that courage and integrity is something that will be recognized by those who holds the same virtues and will not be ultimately buried.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
This is funny. I am – some what because of job market demands. My parents are MDs, so naturally they want me to continue in that path. That’s where I picked up my first major at UCI – public health. But I soon realize I am not in love with the major, even though I am doing well. After a painstaking 2 years of attempting changing major, I finally got into mechanical engineering, which was the “dream major” because I wanted to do car related stuff. However my internship hunt, as well as many talks with insiders has made me realized that hobby might not be the day to day job I want to turn in to. Now I am semi following my parent’s suggestions to do biomedical engineering as my master path, because they say that the only thing not impacted by socioeconomic trends is weapons and medical, I can’t do the former because of my nationality, so BME it is.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/uci.edu/maxwellchen?usp=sharing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwell-chen-8893261bb/
Image Credits
Edward Fan, Siyu, Eric Fan
