Friday Funny: Was Your Childhood Dream to be a Roller Coaster Engineer?

For nearly 150 years, being a roller coaster has been one of the greatest dreams in engineering.

Rob Spiegel

May 28, 2021

When I attend engineering trade shows or conferences, I ask people about their engineering jobs. One day a couple of years ago, a young engineer responded, “I design roller coasters.” Wow! I asked if that had been a childhood dream. He responded that it was the only job he ever wanted and he set out to make it happen by choosing the right schools and meeting the right people.

I’ve had similar conversations with engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and with engineers at NASA’s suppliers. Most recently I spoke with one of the engineers involved in the design and development of the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter. I asked if working on space vehicles was a childhood dream. His answer was similar to the roller coaster engineer: “It’s all I ever wanted to do.”

This summer many of us will be out at the parks riding on the coasters. Remember that the engineer who designed the contraption is living out a great engineering dream.

Rob Spiegel has covered manufacturing for 22 years, 19 of them for Design News. Other topics he has covered include automation, supply chain technology, alternative energy, and cybersecurity. For 10 years, he was the owner and publisher of the food magazine Chile Pepper.

About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

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