Ryerson Design Competition Recap: Day Two

The inaugural Ryerson Invitational T.H.R.I.L.L. Design Competition was held at Ryerson University in Toronto from October 31st to November 1st. The contest pitted teams from Drexel, Waterloo, Guelph, Cornell, and Ryerson universities against each other in three unique challenges designed to reflect different skill sets as well as give students the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their talents for learning and innovating. The day before the actual design competition, the students had the opportunity to go to Canada’s Wonderland to get up close and personal with some of the most popular attractions in the park before having to design their own. Read about our fantastic day at Canada’s Wonderland in Part One of this two part series. Now, FINALLY, onto the competition day (sorry for taking so long to get this posted)!

Coaster Design Requirements

The student teams were required to demonstrate their ability to create a unique and functional roller coaster in NoLimits 2 with:

  • a running time of one minute and 30 seconds
  • a loading time of 1 minute
  • an hourly ride capacity of 1728 patrons
  • a track with a minimum three inversions with a minimum height restriction of 5 meters

The emphasis for this challenge is on the students understanding the concepts that govern the most popular type of ride in the amusement industry, as well as the ability to apply relevant ASTM standards. The teams had to demonstrate appropriate track style and restraint type selection as well as explain the details around their track maneuver selection in terms of speeds, and g forces experienced, as well as details about the physical layout of the coaster. Students were expected to model their coaster in NoLimits but were not required to create a support system for their track. The coaster could be worked on in advance of the actual competition day.

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As you might see on a Food Network show, a surprise ingredient was tossed in at the last minute. On Friday, the day before the presentations, the teams were thrown for a loop when infomred they needed to add theming to their coasters! The coaster had to be themed to a 1940’s RAE Spitfire plane from WWII. Many of the teams had to re-think the type of coaster and seating configuration they had choosen prevously. This surprise modification was meant to simulate the changing parameters seen in an actual amusement industry project.

 

Competition Day

Coaster101 had the honor of judging the Roller Coaster Design challenge alongside Mark Stepanian, a project engineer from Premier Rides, and Steve Blum, Vice President of Safety and Engineering at Universal Creative. Saturday morning, while the students were hard at work putting the finishing touches on their crazy creations, the judges toured Ryerson’s campus. The highlight was playing with the flight simulator located in one of the labs. We rode a NoLimits coaster and later flew an airplane under the Golden Gate bridge before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Riding the simulator was fun but also proves you just can’t replace the real thing!

Fellow judges Brendan Walker from Aerial and Steve Blum take a ride in the flight simulator.

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Roller Coaster Design Challenge

One of the points of emphasis of the coaster design challenge was getting the students to explain why they made the decisions that they did. Saying that you chose an over-the-shoulder-restraint simply because other similar rides had them was not a good enough answer (Hint for next year: reference the relevant ASTM standards).

theme park engineering competition

All the roller coasters designed by the five teams were uniquely different and had their own positive and negative attributes. The coasters ranged from a B&M invert similar to Afterburn at Carowinds, a wing coaster with a unique double zero-g roll  inversion, a dueling coaster, and sitdown looper with track switches leading to a backwards section. One group’s design was very feasible and could’ve actually been built but it was a “safe” design and not as creative as the other coasters that all had at least one unique element or inversion. Another group had a very unique inversion element that roller coaster enthusiasts would drool over but the engineers would never allow due to the potential safety hazard caused by any passenger’s loose articles.

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 The judges doing their thing. Photo by Ryerson Thrill Club. See more pictures here.

After each presentation, the teams had to answer questions from all three judges. Some common questions were: what was the maximum and minimum G-forces? Why did you choose the type of vehicle and restraint? Why did you choose a lift versus a launch and how did that play into the theming of the ride? Why did you choose a LSM launch system versus using different technology like LIMs, hydraulics, etc.?

Congratulations to Waterloo University for winning the Coaster Design Challenge! The Drexel Team won 1st Place as the Overall Competition winner (best score for all three events). To learn more about each collegiate theme park engineering group:


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Again, I’d like to thank everyone at Ryerson, especially Kathryn Woodcock, for putting together an amazing weekend! Of all the amusement industry related events I’ve participated in this one just might have been the best. I hope you decide to do the competition again next year and as I’m sure it will be even bigger and better than before. If you’re currently a student interested in pursuing a career in the amusement industry, I highly recommend you join a theme park engineering group (or start your own) and participate in events like the Ryerson Design Competition – the experience and knowledge you will gain is priceless!

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