Five challenges, several cups of coffee and 48 hours later, Michael Breen couldn’t believe his eyes.
Breen, the external coordinator of the Gator Theme Park Engineering & Design Club, was running on five hours of sleep when his club won at the Ryerson Invitational Thrill Design Competition, an annual problem-solving competition, at Universal Studios Florida on Nov. 11.
The team won first place in two out of the five challenges for overall roller coaster design and mechanical design, Breen said. The winning students will receive first pick for Universal Studios engineering internships.
“It was great just hearing all our hard work pay off,” he said.
This was the first time the club competed, Breen said.
The 21-year-old UF mechanical engineering senior has wanted to work in the theme park industry since he was a kid, he said. Now, he’s a member of a club where he can design rides and compete with other schools.
“It’s a good outlet from the stressful engineering courses,” Breen said
The eight-member UF student team competed against groups from 12 universities, including the University of Central Florida, Savannah College of Art and Design and the University of Michigan, Breen said. The judges did not release the order of the runner-up teams.
During the competition, each team was given a prompt of a theme park problem to design a creative solution for, Breen said. They had 48 hours to complete all five challenges.
While each student had knowledge in engineering, Breen said they all came with diverse backgrounds.
“They’re the most unique group that I’ve worked with on a team assignment,” Breen said. “We’re very cohesive and played to our strengths and contributed to each challenge.”
The team members did a Gator Chomp after each 15-minute presentation, Breen said. Sometimes they would sing Gator fight songs to boost their spirits.
The students are not allowed to share their submission with the public after the competition, but Universal officials said they were impressed with the group’s creativity, said the club’s internal coordinator Suyapa Peachey.
The 21-year-old UF aerospace engineering senior said she was shocked the club didn’t already exist at UF before last year.
The club, which was founded by UF student Griffin Schobel in Spring 2017, provides students who are interested in a career in theme parks with educational resources, tours with engineering companies and networking opportunities, Peachey said.
The club hopes to expand and host a smaller-scale version of the Ryerson competition at UF next semester that will be open to all majors, she said.
“We form a bridge between the industry and students,” Peachey said.
Contact Alyssa Ramos at aramos@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @LysKRamos
(From left to right) Matthew Musial, Sierra Simpson, Mark Lawrence, Andrea Wright, Justin Lawrence, Kaylyn Ling, Michael Breen and Kristofer Robinson hold their first place overall trophy at the Ryerson Invitational Thrill Design Competition at Universal Studios Florida.
