Winners of Cornell’s 2018 Theme Park Design Competition announced
After months of registration, design, and judging processes, the results are in for the Theme Park Design Competition held by New York’s Cornell University, sponsored by WhiteWater.
1st place was awarded to Team 23 from the University of Florida with their LSM-powered river rapids ride “Cryptid Creek”, scoring an averaged 20.65 out of 25 possible points.
2nd place went to Team 25 from Pennsylvania State University with their drop-tracked boat ride “Eerie Adventure”, scoring an averaged 19.05.
Coming in 3rd place was Team 31 from the University of Florida with their interactive projection-mapped boat ride “Tales of Tiz”, scoring an averaged 18.25 points.
Team 9 and Team 3, both from the University of Texas at Austin, rounded out the top-five teams with 17.92 points and 17.45 points, respectively.
The 2018 competition challenged students to design an immersive experience using state-of-the-art water ride technologies, taking vision from “blue-sky” concept to budgeted and rendered pitch, requiring a breadth of skills to create a successful package given spatial and financial constraints.
Louis Alfieri, chief creative officer at Raven Sun Creative; Rick Briggs, director of creative development at WhiteWater West; Jeff Havlik, vice president at PGAV Destinations; Matt Jackson, director of technical design at Adirondack Studios; Stefan Lawrence, creative director at Rethink Leisure & Entertainment comprised the judging panel, which scored submissions along criteria of completeness, legibility, creativity, quality, and realism and provided personalised feedback.
