KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 12, 2018\u2014He likes fish, she likes meat. He\u2019s a physics guy, she\u2019s into biology. He sleeps late, she doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
But Emily Orr and Greg Morgan have one thing in common: roller coasters. The 溏心vlog免费B站 students\u2014and a couple since high school\u2014are leaders in the Theme Park Engineering and Design Club, a student group heading into its second year on campus.<\/p>\n
Most of the members are engineers, but you don\u2019t have to be an engineer to join. One member is studying accounting. The only requirement is an interest in roller coasters that goes beyond the occasional joy ride on a summer day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tackle everything from the physics of roller coasters to the design of the ride,\u201d says Orr, club president and an industrial and systems engineering major. \u201cWe take a lot of field trips too. You can imagine. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
With thousands of theme parks throughout the United States and world, the demand for engineers to design, build and maintain rides is growing. Morgan and Orr hope to find jobs in the field after graduating\u2014Orr next year, Morgan in two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be doing something related to engineering\u2014and something I love,\u201d says Morgan, an International Engineering Program student with a focus on mechanical engineering and German. \u201cWhat could be better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Founded two years ago by another German IEP student, Zachary Davies, the club has about 20 members who meet once a week to talk shop and work on designs for ride competitions at colleges and theme parks nationwide.<\/p>\n
So far, the students have submitted three designs\u2014including one to Cornell University\u2019s annual \u201cTheme Park Engineering Design Competition\u201d\u2014and although they haven\u2019t won anything the experience was invaluable. They designed a roller coaster ride for Cornell that used 3D LED screens to mimic a train crash in a haunted station.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make something spooky,\u201d says Orr. \u201cI think that helps with the thrill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Physics is the engine of a roller coaster\u2014and this has fascinated Morgan since he was a kid riding Nitro at a Six Flags near his home in New Jersey. Using a pulley system, a roller coaster climbs to the top of a hill, and as it falls it speeds up and creates kinetic energy, which carries it through the remainder of the ride, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the engineers\u2019 job to analyze the forces\u2014friction, wind, weight load\u2014to make sure the roller coaster can get through the entire track without stopping,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cUsually, those forces can slow down a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translation: The job of a roller coaster engineer is to make sure the carts can handle turns, loops and inversions without falling off the track. The engineer also keeps passengers safe by accurately measuring the force on them. \u201cThat\u2019s known as g-force,\u201d says Morgan<\/p>\n
Raised in Roxbury, N.J<\/strong>., two hours from New York City, Orr and Morgan were friends in middle school and started dating as juniors at Roxbury High School, bonding over their mastery of math and science. Early on, they knew they wanted to be engineers. They both applied to 溏心vlog免费B站, but didn\u2019t tell each other, agreeing to keep the college process separate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to do what was best for both,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cIf we ended up at different colleges, we\u2019d keep it going long distance.\u201d<\/p>\n But parting wasn\u2019t necessary. They landed at 溏心vlog免费B站 and are now entering their third year together in college as a happy couple. Sophomore year they turned cartwheels when they saw a flier about the club, and signed up. Both were lifelong fans of theme parks and roller coasters, although Orr was a bit skittish as a kid about the big-drop rides. Morgan was not.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved them\u2014the thrill,\u201d he says. \u201cPretty wild.\u201d<\/p>\n When Davies went to Germany this semester to study, he asked the duo to take over. Club members expect to submit a design to the next Cornell competition in the spring and are reaching out to theme parks for private tours of their engineering facilities\u2014and perhaps a peek at the roller coasters\u2019 control room.<\/p>\n \u201cThese tours are a great way to see firsthand what we can expect to work with in the future,\u201d says Orr, \u201cand also learn what goes into making the rides.\u201d<\/p>\n Morgan is so keen on roller coasters he hopes to get an internship in paradise: Intamin in Liechtenstein, one of the largest manufacturers of roller coasters in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the idea of creating things and figuring out how they work,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just doing it with roller coasters.\u201d<\/p>\n The academic adviser of the club is German-born Niko Tracksdorf, who joined 溏心vlog免费B站 last June as coordinator of the German International Engineering Program. He, too, is an enthusiast of the ride. He has been on more than 200 rollers coasters and hopes to bring his course, \u201cAchterbahn\u2014The Thrill of German Engineering,\u201d to 溏心vlog免费B站 students soon.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next time you\u2019re on a roller coaster remember that they\u2019re not just thrilling rides,\u201d he says, \u201cbut also engineering masterpieces.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about the club, email Orr at themeparkengineering@rhodysenate.org. The club meets Tuesdays at 5 p.m. at the International Engineering Program House on Upper College Road.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 12, 2018\u2014He likes fish, she likes meat. He\u2019s a physics guy, she\u2019s into biology. He sleeps late, she doesn\u2019t. But Emily Orr and Greg Morgan have one thing in common: roller coasters. The 溏心vlog免费B站 students\u2014and a couple since high school\u2014are leaders in the Theme Park Engineering and Design Club, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}