The Texas Theme Park Engineering Group met Monday to go over new amusement park attractions opening around the world in 2020 and discuss the upcoming Engineers Week on campus.
The student organization, TxTPEG, helps students hoping to enter the amusement park industry gain an understanding of career paths and innovations within the field.
“This organization has opened my eyes to the theme entertainment industry. It has given me a gateway in,” said Kylie Stamey, external vice president for TxTPEG. “We show people what the theme industry is like, and we have speakers that talk to people about different companies and how to get different jobs.”
Mechanical engineering junior Stamey is a three-year member of TxTPEG and said the group has aided her career.
“I got an internship with Premier Rides this past fall, and I was a project engineering intern,” Stamey said. “The biggest thing I have learned from this group to help me with that job is communicating with professionals.”
At the group’s meeting in Burdine Hall, members were alerted to 20 new rides coming in 2020. They discussed rides in United States parks such as SeaWorld San Antonio and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and in international parks such as Tokyo Disneyland and Polish amusement park Energylandia.
The group also discussed Engineers Week at the Cockrell School of Engineering, which is an event for all engineering students in which they compete in activities throughout Austin.
The Student Engineering Council will host Engineers Week from Feb. 14-Feb. 23 at multiple locations around campus, including the Texas Union.
“There are awesome activities like a dramatic textbook reading, karaoke, a scavenger hunt and the most exciting event, Dr. Ramshorn Pageant,” TxTPEG President Scia Verma said.
Verma, a mechanical engineering and design strategies senior, said the pageant is the main attraction of E-Week and features a contestant from each engineering organization. The contest showcases the different organizations and disciplines in engineering, according to the Student Engineering Council website.
The festivities will kick off Friday from 4 p.m.\-6 p.m. on the Engineering Education and Research Center lawn and is open to any engineering student in an organization.
“This will be my first E-Week,” said Julian Fritz, electrical and computer engineering sophomore. “It seems like a good way to get involved and participate in competition with other students.”
