Luke and Adam Upah work together at Honda after graduating from mechanical engineering in 2008 and 2013
The Upah brothers grew up in Tama, Iowa, racing and riding dirt bikes and ATVs. Over 20 years later, the duo still lives and races together, but now they work together at Honda off-road power sports research and development department in Ohio. Adam began working for the company after graduating with a mechanical engineering degree in 2008, and Luke joined him after graduating in 2013.
Although they never imagined they would still be living together, they are both enjoying it. Luke said, “We’re best friends really. We’re very fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to live together and work right across the aisle.”
Adam initially came to Iowa State after realizing that he wanted to pursue a career in the power sports industry. Professional racing was never really an option, so “the next best thing was to be an engineer.” He has many fond memories of Iowa State, but his favorite was building the baja car with the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) team.
Luke did not know what he was going to do upon high school graduation, but after hearing Jonathan Wickert, Iowa State’s senior vice president and provost who was chair of the mechanical engineering department at the time, speak about the benefits of a mechanical engineering degree at Adam’s graduation, he decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps. While at Iowa State, he enjoyed working as a shop technician in the Boyd Lab, working with students to build their projects.
The brothers attribute their career success to Iowa State, especially the mechanical engineering core curriculum. Luke explained, “The problem-solving skills we learned in college have paid dividends already, because the majority of our job is to take on challenges for new designs and solve problems along the way.”
Luke also credits Iowa State for many of the accomplishments in his life, including graduating from college, making many friends, and “landing an awesome job after college, thanks to my education there.”
An awesome job is something both brothers have. Adam works as a senior engineer in safety testing and durability testing on all terrain vehicles and side-by-side off-road vehicles. After getting a co-op with the company during his junior year, he knew where he wanted to end up. He began working for Honda full time after graduating in 2008.
After Luke saw Adam’s success with the company and knowing he wanted to continue working with ATVs and motorcycles, he knew the company would be a good fit. He works as a design engineer in the frames group and values the Honda’s values of safety and reliability.