My story participating in...
Ride Engineering Competiton
Date:
Role:
Ranking:
December 2023 - May 2024
Associate Mechanical and Theming Engineer
4th Place
Summary
Beginning in December of 2023 I joined Cal Poly's team for the annual intercollegiate Ride Engineering Competition, where we designed and manufactured a scale model rollercoaster that was up to ASTM standards of safety. We used Solidworks, to CAD a model of our track and ride vehicle, which we were able to put through FEA testing. Then we began manufacturing, using steel tubing for much of our track and 3D printing for our ride vehicle. We used a Tube Shark to create bends and then MIG welded our pieces together. We finally added our decorations using chicken wire and paper mache to build the mountain and clay and resin cast to create animatronic figures.
We flew to Carowinds in North Carolina to compete against 16 schools where we placed 4th overall.
I had the absolute most incredible experience designing and manufacturing CAPED's entry into the 2024 Ride Engineering Competition.
We began by designing
During our early meetings, we would brainstorm, coming up with our vision and what our goals were. We used a lot of Solidworks and No Limits to help us bring our ideas to life and test the g-forces and structural stability.
To create the coaster's backbone we used a steel tubing that we filled with sand to prevent kinking as we created bends using a Tube Shark.
After cutting and bending our tubes we assembled the team to do a physical mock up of our coaster design.
After testing out many forms of welding such as TIG, Stick, and Brazing, we ultimately decided to go with MIG welding in order to bond our coaster to our supports.
We used 3D printing to create our ride vehicle, which is complete with ride restraints that securely hold our passengers (Starburst) in place during their ride.
To fit with our candy theme, we used paint and clay to turn our ride vehicle into a slice of a delicious cake.
We created molds using real candy and then casted them in resin to make props for our coaster
To follow our coaster's story line we created Gingerbreadmen from clay to act as our story protagants.
We then created a gingerbread village using both laser cut wood as well as clay to form gingerbread houses.
We used white clay that we watered down to create the frosting texture on our houses.
We used chicken wire to form the shape of our mountain and covered it with a mixture of joint compound and foam clay to give it the texture we wanted.
We spray-painted our mountain brown to resemble chocolate and added some white garnishings.
Then it was time to assemble our props!
We built animatronics to portray Sweetish Fish jumping out of a pond and gingerbread men getting chased by evil gummy bears!
Finally, we made our final adjustments to our control box...
and our coaster was complete!
It was time to wrap up our coaster and fly to North Carolina.
The Ride Engineering Competition was held at Carowinds on the border of North and South Carolina. We spent the day at our booth speaking to industry professionals and showing off our coaster.
We were so excited to bring home 4th place!
Outreach
S.T.E.A.M Night
We had the honor of attending Liberty Elementray's STEAM Night, where we introduced kids to the beautiful world of engineering. We discussed design and manufacturing and how no idea is ever a bad idea. We would ask them questions about our coaster and what materials we used to craft it. We also wanted to get them in a creative mindset and asked them about ideas for rollercoasters they could build. Their responses were so great!
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