Wyatt Harvey ’24
Majors: Mechanical Engineering and Astronomy, Astrophysics
Systems Engineer, Ed Carpenter Racing IndyCar Team
Monrovia, Indiana

Looking at your career now, how did Butler help shape that path?
Butler helped shape my career by encouraging me to combine what I loved rather than choosing between them. I was excited to study engineering, but I also had a passion for space and the universe. Butler’s environment not only supported that interest but also actively encouraged me to pursue it. The ability to think across disciplines, pull from different fields, and connect dots others might miss is exactly what engineering in IndyCar demands. Motorsports is where data and mechanical precision meet split-second problem-solving, and Butler provided me with the foundation to excel in all of these areas.

How did your time in EDDP help you build the confidence or skills you use now?
In the EDDP, balancing two demanding degrees meant moving between completely different lectures and disciplines all in the same day. This showed me how I learned best and how I could shift my thinking quickly. Adding extracurricular activities on top of that, and time management became a crucial skill to help me stay on track and succeed. IndyCar runs on a tight schedule, and when something goes wrong, I don’t have time to work through it slowly; I have to diagnose fast, think clearly, and get the team back up and running. While I was working towards my degrees and dreaming of racing, the EDDP was already preparing me to be confident in those high-pressure environments.

What’s a story you tell people when they ask what Butler is really like?
I always tell people that the most impactful memories come from the smallest moments. For me, that small moment at Butler was before my journey as a Bulldog even began. When I went on an admitted student visit, my admissions counselor pulled me aside and asked how my last semester of high school was going, and genuinely meant it. She told me if I ever needed anything, to reach out, and she’d find a resource to help. I had toured a lot of universities by that point, and nothing like that happened anywhere else. That moment told me I was never going to be just a number at Butler; I was going to be part of a community of people who pride themselves on going the extra mile for each other. That meant the world to me.

What advice would you give a prospective student considering Butler?
I would encourage them to lean into the Butler’s small size. It’s one of Butler’s biggest advantages and can be easy to overlook when you’re comparing schools on paper. Smaller class sizes mean you get time with your professors, where real conversations lead to mentorship. Beyond that, Butler gives you the support to be ambitious and to pursue things that don’t fit neatly into one box. They encourage you not to shrink your curiosity to fit a mold. When you have that kind of support, and you’re genuinely passionate about what you’re doing, magic is bound to happen.

Looking back, what experience at Butler ended up being more influential than you realized at the time?
Early in the engineering program, we learned to code in C++, making rudimentary applications and visualizing data. Then, in my astrophysics coursework, we used Python to process images captured through the telescope at Holcomb Observatory. Those two skills were eventually used during my sophomore year summer internship with Ed Carpenter Racing. One of my first tasks was building a data visualization application in Python. That moment showed me how much my education and passions overlap. That inspired me to keep learning and keep finding new ways to bring those worlds together.