From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, February 10, 1997
Jolly Holiday ride wins Disney job for senior
By Mary Caffrey
Most children who get on a roller coaster just look forward to what's around the next corner. Bevin Barberich '97 was different. During her visits to "Physics Days" at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., Barberich wondered what it would be like to design the twists and turns herself.
Barberich will get her chance after she graduates in the spring with a degree in mechanical engineering. She has a job waiting for her at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, Calif.
The job is part of the first-prize package that Barberich received -- from Mickey Mouse, naturally -- when she won the 1996 Imagi-Nations Design Competition. She was sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers for the contest, which is open to members of minority engineering organizations.
After spending months in the com-puter lab in the E-Quad, Barberich traveled to California last June to present her concept for an amusement park ride that combined the motion of a traditional car and track with the high-tech surroundings of virtual reality.
Her winning entry, "A Jolly Holiday," was based on the Disney musical Mary Poppins, her personal favorite. A two-minute video that Barberich designed gives viewers a feel for what the real trip would be like. Imagine a merry-go-round with horses that leap off the carousel and land in scenes from the film. Your horse might go to a nursery where dolls dance to "A Spoonful of Sugar." Another trip might end on a rooftop, where chimney sweeps would wield their brooms to "Chim Chiminey." Other routes would go to the racetrack or a fox hunt.
Barberich's design called for a random route selection, which would keep children coming back. "That way they'll want to get on all four tracks," she said.
Her ride is aimed at children between the ages of four and six, a group not targeted by most Disney rides. Barberich kept the ride short--just 147 seconds--and called for the use of virtual reality screens instead of helmets because preschoolers might balk at putting something on their heads. And while parents would not have to accompany their children, her design could accommodate them.
Along with the video, Barberich submitted a booklet outlining the specifics of her ride, such as the speed of the cars, the pitch of the tracks and the volume the ride could handle.
Two features set Jolly Holiday apart from the other entries: the combina-tion of motion with virtual reality and the use of the computer program Alias. Most young designers learn the program after they are hired, she said.
Every free minute
"During first semester last year, I spent every free minute I had learning Alias," Barberich said. "My friends thought I was crazy." Those friends may be jealous now. Besides bringing home a job offer and a $2,000 prize, Barberich's winning design qualified as her senior thesis project. With that hurdle behind her, she has more free time than many seniors.
"I took last semester off from Expressions," a campus dance com-pany, Barberich says. "Now I'm dancing again."
Music and dance have always been a big part of her life, and so has Mary Poppins. In high school she taught songs and dances from the production to a theater group for young performers.
Though Disney has no plans to build Jolly Holiday, the company now owns the rights to Barberich's ride and may still use some of her ideas. She looks forward to coming up with more of them when she reports for work as an associate mechanical engineer on June 30.
Despite Barberich's win, getting the job was not automatic. Disney officials told the Times of Trenton that they have hired only nine Imagi-Nations finalists out of 120 since the contest began in 1992--and these typically completed a six-month internship before being hired.
If all goes well, Barberich would not mind putting her French to use at EuroDisney. "I'd love to go to Paris," she said.
Right now, that's just a dream. But so was her childhood wish to design roller coasters.
"I've wanted to do this since the eighth grade. One of my friends told me, 'You always said you were going to do this. And you did it.'"