Adam Newton was walking through the Epcot theme park of Disney World while on vacation and saw a child pretending to conduct the characteristic Disney music coming out of the speakers of the park. An idea sprouted in his mind—that would be a great ride.
Newton, now a senior in industrial engineering, returned to N.C. State to start the fall semester his freshman year in 2008, and one day he got a Facebook message from a stranger complimenting him on his musical taste via shared Itunes music libraries.
Patrick Carroll, senior in electrical engineering, frequently listened to Newton’s music and noticed Newton’s large list of Disney music.
“It may sound really weird, but I heard about the Disney Imangineer’s ImagiNations Competition in which you design your own ride, so I messaged Adam to see if he was interested,” Carroll said.
Newton, along with his suitemates, “to keep come company and security,” met Carroll in Fountain Dining Hall, where Carroll explained his interest in the competition.
“I was thinking, ‘I never met this kid,'” Netwon said. “But once he told me about the competition in Glendale, I was intrigued.”
Newton and his friends Jay Brown and Michael Delaney, recent graduates from the College of Design, soon became part of the team, and they started working on designing a proposal for a ride depicting the magical and musical world of Disney’s “Fantasia.”
Winner of the 1995 ImagiNations competition and former University professor Elena Page gave guidance to the students to focus their goal, which they have developed for the past four years.
The N.C. State team developed the Fantasia attraction as an interactive ride for Disney visitors to experience the story of “Fantasia,” letting people go through the various stories of the movie.
“People can control parts of the ride with a response technology similar to the sensory technology of the X-Box Kinect,” Newton said. “This is the primary difference between other ‘rides.’ The ride also includes fireworks, sparks and lights, and of course, music.”
According to Newton, the technology allows people on the ride to use their hands to conduct the musical symphony, much like the young child he saw at Epcot.
“The attraction is a dark ride, like a concert hall, through which the visitors pass,” Carroll said.
The competition limited teams to four students but does not discriminate against non-technical majors.
“We have two engineers and two artists,” Brown said. “We really had to branch out big time to make sure we were all on the same page and that we collaborated since we came from different disciplines.”
According to Delaney, the competition was a good way to gain experience in the industrial field of design and engineering.
“It really promoted the idea to collaborate and communicate between designers and engineers,” Delaney said. “In the real world, industry operates like a team. Teamwork and the project are bigger than you.”
Carroll said the project allowed him to work outside of the “academic bubble,” and take advantage of resources the University offers.
“While researching and designing our ideas, we were able to use labs and materials we necessarily wouldn’t have used,” Brown said.
Nominated to compete in the final selection of the contest, the team spent a week in Glendale, Calif., visiting the production and engineering studios of Disneyland.
“We got to spend a lot of time with professionals in the company,” Carroll said. “They were like celebrities in the theme park world.”
The judging of the competition took place June 17 and the first place prize went to the team from the University of Southern California for a roller-coaster balloon ride inspired by the Pixar movie, “Up.”
Along with prize money and work experience, the competitors interviewed for intern positions with Disney in fields of technology, architecture, costumes, transportation and attractions development.
“Before, I had never been to Disneyland or Disney World, and the whole week was a whirlwind of an experience,” Delaney said. “It was a good way to look into the company.”
