Roller Coaster & The Old Mill [98186 Design Challenge]

In my freshman fall (2018), I took my first StuCo (student-taught course) at CMU, 98-186 Roller Coaster Design and History, which is still one of my favorite classes at CMU. We’ve done all sorts of design challenges, and I’ve designed two roller coasters with some Chinese themes in the individual projects. For example, my first project was related to the Jiankou section of the Great Wall, and my second project mimicked the shape and knotting process of the Chinese Knot. It was so much fun and I enjoyed making these designs a lot!

:one: The Great Wall :two: The Chinese Knot

There’s a follow-up project for this course called The Old Mill, I’m very proud to be able to have an insider view of the project and made my little contribution.

In my sophomore Spring Carnival (a CMU tradition), we built the first student-made indoor dark ride in Skibo Gym (Facebook @theoldmillride).

I offered some limited help on this project, such as making promotional materials (video and a creative-writing news article), shopping materials, assembling the carts, and being one of the tour guides in the operation. However, it’s still one of the most memorable projects that I’ve participated, as I’m so impressed and inspired by my brilliant CMU peers’ devotion to interests. Their hearts are in the work they love — this spirit is accompanying me all along.

And I’ll always remember the line that I repeated for hundreds of times:

“Hello everyone, my name is Christina and I’m your tour guide today. Welcome to the Garfield Steel Work Museum and ready to be impressed by our Steel City’s glory past!”

The Old Mill Ride POV & Behind the Scene
More activities we've done in 98-186