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| 07-31-2002 | Previous edition: 07-29-2002 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Class creates wheelchair for parks
Editor in chief Charles Flueck is an engineer, but he wants to be an entertainer. But Flueck, a senior in the Schools of Engineering who is graduating on Saturday, doesn't want to sing, dance or tell jokes. He wants to build roller coasters. It was Flueck's fascination with amusement park rides and a recently completed internship with Imagineering, a division of the Walt Disney that designs and develops amusement and theme park rides, that led him to suggest his Mechanical Engineering senior design class, ME 463, build and design an "assisted entertainment vehicle." The vehicle, a modified wheelchair that gives disabled individuals access to theme park rides, is something many in the amusement park industry have been trying to design in anticipation of changes in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Changes in the law will require theme parks to make 20 percent of their rides handicap accessible. For Flueck and his 25 classmates it was a chance to work on a project that could result in enjoyment for millions of disabled people. It was also a chance to gain real-world engineering experience. "Most of the students in mechanical engineering are more focused on the industrial applications of engineering," said Flueck. "I'm more interested in the entertainment aspect." On Tuesday, the class unveiled its project — a blue mechanized wheelchair with a docking device interface that makes getting a wheelchair on an amusement park ride both quicker and easier. "I honestly didn't think they were capable of doing it," said John Nolfi, manager of the Product Engineering and Realization Laboratory in the School of Mechanical Engineering and the class's instructor. "Especially, since no one in industry's done it yet." Besides the difficulty of developing a completely new device, the class was faced with several other challenges — an eight-week timetable, a limited budget and a lack of materials. The class decided on building a prototype for what Flueck calls "dark rides" — theme park attractions such as haunted mansion rides or mine rides. He said he hopes to one day be able to design a device that makes wheelchairs accessible to rides like roller coasters. In order to meet the timetable, the class was divided into groups similar to how design teams are divided at real businesses. Students were assigned to five different teams to develop and build the prototype. Before the class could design the chair, it was important to understand the limitations and requirements that the chair needed, said Carrie Fercick, a senior in the Schools of Engineering and a team leader for the systems support group. The class spent a day at Indiana Beach amusement park in Montecello, Ind., taking measurements and studying how rides operated. Fercick spent the day in a wheelchair to help visualize the different problems the disabled face. After the class developed the initial design, the real work began. The class had to manufacture most of the parts in the Mechanical Engineering machine shops and salvage the rest of the parts elsewhere. After construction, the team had to analyze and test all of the parts. Then it was time to see if it actually worked, and on the first try it did. "I was surprised," said Nolfi. "Prototypes rarely work on the first try." Jim Jones, associate department head of mechanical engineering, said the team's ability to put together a complex, workable prototype in such a short amount of time is an indication of the students' quality. "These student's don't know what they can't do," said Jones. "They were able to solve a very tough problem using all of the skills they've learned as Purdue students." Jones said mechanical engineering students learn most of the design and development concepts in the school's core classes and use their senior design course to integrate the concepts into practical use. "Something like this they'll remember for the rest of their lives," said Jones. "When they go out to their job and are asked to develop something, they'll know what to do because they've done it before." And it's that real world practicality that Flueck is taking with him as he prepares to start his career — working on a design team for Imagineering. Flueck said designing rides is a job he's always dreamed about. Flueck said he had applied for an internship with Imagineering three times before he was accepted — after literally flying to California and handing recruiters his resume. But he said the determination was worth it — he got to work on a project for the Indiana Jones ride, he came up with a concept for his senior design project and he found a career that he loved. "I love engineering and I love entertaining people — it's is the perfect job for me." Printer-friendly version |
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