Toronto Met Thrill Design Competition is now an established elite experience for students interested in theme park design. The TMU Thrill Club had a taste of the experience over the weekend of 22 – 26 March 2024, braving a big dump of snow to get to the challenge reveal. One attraction design challenge, and the luxury of FOUR days to tackle it! (The Invitational has a maximum of three, and as little as ONE day to design a challenge response!) As usual, all challenge details are top secret, so nothing more to say here. Teams presented to a fantastic professional jury comprised of Peter Marshall (FORREC), Joelle Javier (TSSA) and Jake Fulton (outgoing Club President and TMU 2024 grad joining Universal Destinations and Experiences).
Category: Club/Competition
Human factors in amusement rides and attractions
Virtual visit to Queen’s U
Themed Entertainment Development Team (QTEDT)
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
Continue reading “Human factors in amusement rides and attractions”Thrill Design Competition
The competition originally known as the “Ryerson Invitational Thrill Design Competition” was renamed with the renaming of the University, and is now known as the Toronto Metropolitan University Thrill Design Competition. In addition, in 2022, we introduced an Open Qualifying (OQ) competition in the summer, to select teams for invitation to the TMU Thrill Design Invitational, taking place at Universal Orlando Resort.
Thrill Club project demo
Shortly after the Thrill Club began developing a scale model dark ride for its future activities, we had the opportunity to offer a demonstration for an audience of amusement ride safety inspectors, owners, and others at the annual TSSA Ride Safety Seminar in Niagara Falls. A smaller scale first draft model was quickly completed and packed for transport! Club president Jake Fulton attended the safety seminar and enjoyed great professional networking and continuing education hours as well.
Guest speaker
April 3 was an opportunity for TMU and local students interested in theme park careers to learn from industry veteran John Riggleman as he visited Toronto.
Blue sky workshop
We were thrilled to host a workshop that has engaged participants at IAAPA Expos and informed private client design planning. Facilitated by Mark Stepanian, President and Chief Experience Officer of CAVU Designwerks and one of Blooloop’s 2022 “50 Theme Park Influencers”, the workshop is the first such professional development experience in Canada for young professionals. CAVU Designwerks is a Canadian designer, manufacturer, and supplier of innovative experience-based rides and attractions found in theme parks worldwide.
Continue reading “Blue sky workshop”CNE 2017 Construction week field trip
This year, three Ryerson Engineering students joined the CNE construction field trip. Aside from posing with Squirtles (Pokémon game prizes likely to be the hot commodity this year), they had the opportunity to join me in shadowing some ride inspections and watching the assembly of Canada’s largest fair.
Continue reading “CNE 2017 Construction week field trip”CNE Eve
‘Twas the morning before CNE and all through the midway, … there were new rides arriving and still some spaces.
Continue reading “CNE Eve”Wednesday, pre-CNE 2014
The show opens Friday morning. The threatening rain yesterday did not catch us, and today was windy but dry. There were still many rides on the midway that had not been completely put together and fenced in, giving us a good chance to look at the machinery from all angles. We also had a chance to watch inspections of some rides, including the Ring of Fire and the Crazy Mouse spinning coaster.
Continue reading “Wednesday, pre-CNE 2014”Tuesday, pre-CNE 2014
The CNE opens on Friday, with a blast of confetti at 10am. On the midway, there are many marked spaces for rides that have not yet arrived. We expect more to see tomorrow, and a magical transformation on Thursday. Today’s site visit gave students a look under the new Tivoli Remix.
Continue reading “Tuesday, pre-CNE 2014”