Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time with some students from Ohio State University.  These OSU students formed the Theme Park Engineering Group.  It is a college club for people interested in theme parks and rides.

They were visiting Kings Island to go on a construction tour of Diamondback – the “new for 2009″ attraction being built at the park.  (We’ll excuse them for not visiting the construction site of our ride in China.)  As a part of their day’s activities, I gave a small talk about The Gravity Group and the design & engineering process that goes on for a wooden coaster.  The latest issue of OSU’s student newspaper, The Lantern, wrote a nice article about the Theme Park Engineering Group’s tour.

For now, since the club members are in college, my job is safe.  But in a few years there will be some pretty talented young engineers entering the amusement industry job pool.  If you are in college and interested in designing rides someday, maybe you should think about starting your own Theme Park Engineering Group.