Team H2

Team Pic

Benjamin Johnson (The Fearless Leader)

Benjamin Johnson is a native Coloradan and grew up south of Denver. He graduated from Cherry Creek High School in 2003, then joined the United States Air Force in 2004. At his first assignment at Bolling Air Force Base, DC, he was a member of the Presidential Honor Guard. He performed various ceremonial functions at the White House and Pentagon, and also rendered military funeral honors in Arlington National Cemetery. He was later selected to be a member of the Drill Team and traveled the country to promote the Air Force in local communities. In 2007, he retrained into Space Operations and came to Buckley Air Force Base, CO to work with the satellite-based missile defense system. He finished his active duty tour in 2010 to pursue his education in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado - Denver. In his free time, he takes advantage of the many outdoor sports that Colorado has to offer. For the Archetype project, he is the team lead and will be working with Cole Booth to design the body for the vehicle.

John McGee (Assistant Fearless Leader) 

John is a Colorado native and grew up in Lakewood. Graduated from Holy Family High School in 2002. After high school he joined the Navy and attended Naval Nuclear Power School in Charleston, SC and trained at Nuclear Power Training Unit in Balston Spa, NY. When his training was completed, he was assigned to the USS Nimitz, home ported in San Diego, CA at the time. He spent six and a half years on board the Nimitz working in Reactor Mechanical division. While onboard he was deployed four times, three of which were to the Arabian Gulf and North Arabian Sea in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2009 John was recognized as the USS Nimitz Engineer of the Year and the fourth Quarter Engineer of the Quarter for Commander Naval Air Forces Pacific Fleet.  In July 2010 John was Honorably Discharged from the Navy and moved back to Denver to pursue his degree in mechanical engineering. For team Archetype, John will be working with Alysha Yinger in designing the steering and suspension for our vehicle


Alfredo Saracho

Alfredo was born in Mazatlan, Sinaloa and lived there until he was 12.  He and his family moved to Englewood, CO in 1996 and he has lived there ever since.  Alfredo graduated from Englewood high school in 2002.  After graduating from high school, Alfredo started working at natural food store where he worked a variety of jobs ranging from butcher to bulk product buyer.  After the natural food store, Alfredo was offered a job as a security officer working at an aerospace company in Denver.  This is where his interest in engineering began to develop and he decided to go back to school in 2009. Alfredo grew up riding BMX, and nowadays spends his free time riding his mountain bike and motorcycles. For the vehicle, Alfredo is working on the cockpit design, electrical, and the fuel cell.


Jeremy Johnson

Graduating high school in 1993, it took a while for Jeremy to find his niche. He has always loved to take things apart and fix them. A born tinkerer. Jeremy has been in the HVAC trade for 13 years. He is a 2003 graduate of Ogden/Weber Technology College for HVAC. Jeremy has worked in all aspects of the trade, commercial and residential installations, shop fabrication, and service work. A transplant from Utah, once Jeremy arrived in Colorado he decided to take his education and career to the next level. He does not want to be working on a roof when he is 50! He will look to stay in the trade, on the engineering side, when he graduates. Jeremy wants to instill the value of hard work to his children and show them that they are never to old to learn. Jeremy is an avid fisherman and enjoys anything out in nature. For Archetype, Jeremy is working with Kurtis on the drivetrain for the vehicle. 


Kurtis Calkins

Kurtis was born in Wichita, Kansas and has lived in southern California and Juneau, Alaska before moving to Colorado in 1999.  After graduating high school in 2004, he began his college career at Front Range Community College to get an associate degree in Engineering Graphics Technology for mechanical engineering.   However, half-way through, the program was canceled and Kurtis was required to seek other options.  After a short hiatus, he applied to the University of Colorado at Denver in their Mechanical Engineering program.  Kurtis is now in his senior year, looking to graduate in 2014.  On the Archetype senior design project, he is working with Jeremy on the drivetrain of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

Alysha Yinger

Alysha was born in Seattle, since then she has lived in five different states and one other country. She moved to Colorado right before high school. After graduating high school in 2009 she moved to Steamboat Springs, CO to start her engineering degree. Since then she has moved back to denver and now she is a senior in the CU Mechanical Engineering program. Throughout college she has worked as a tutor, teaching freshmen engineers the fundamentals in math, statics, and thermodynamics. She also volunteers at different high schools teaching prospective women engineers math and science. In her spare time Alysha loves to travel and spend as much time in the mountains as possible. For team Archetype, she will be working with John McGee to design to the steering and suspension system.

Scott Davis

Scott grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to Durango, CO in 1996 to attend Fort Lewis College.  Having spent much of his youth getting muddy in the Georgia outdoors, Scott quickly found plenty of new outdoor activities, primarily mountain biking, backpacking and snowboarding, to entertain himself with in the outdoor mecca that is Durango.  A passion for environmental stewardship was bred through this love of the outdoors, and in 2002, Scott graduated from the University of Montana with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology.  Upon graduating, Scott moved to the Denver area to work for Air Pollution Testing, and spent the next two years as a technician testing emissions from industrial sources such as power plants and oil refineries. Scott quickly decided that climbing smoke stacks was not a preferred career path, and decided that construction may be a better career path for him, as his step-father was a home builder in Atlanta and instilled a love for all things construction and building in Scott as a kid.  After a couple of years working with his hands in various trades, Scott finally landed a job as a superintendent/project manager with MAX Construction, a Denver general contractor, where Scott led tenant finish projects for clients such as Bellco Credit Union, Key Bank, and Zachry Engineering for 5+ years before returning to UCD to pursue a mechanical engineering degree.  Scott is now in his senior year and plans to graduate in May 2014.  For team Archetype, Scott will be primarily designing the wheels and braking systems.

Cole Booth

Cole was born in Phoenix, AZ, but considers Colorado his home. After graduating from Smoky Hill High School in 2005 he worked in sales for a time and attended Charis Bible College in Colorado Springs. Missing the rigor of traditional academia, he decided to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering due to the variety of career options available to him. After attending Pima Community College in Arizona, he moved back to Colorado to marry his high-school sweetheart and enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering Program at UCDenver. Cole will be graduating in 2014 and looks forward to starting a career as an engineer. For Archetype, Cole is working with Ben for the body design.