Contact: Emily Slater, 805-266-0208; emslater@calpoly.edu

Student-built attraction earns top West Division honors in Hershey

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly’s student organization Cal Poly Amusement Park Engineers and Designers, or CAPED, earned first place in the West Division and the Impact Award at the national 2026 Ride Engineering Competition, held April 11 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The annual event drew more than 370 student participants from universities across the country. CAPED, with about 60 members, was one of the largest teams in the field.

The competition gives university teams six months to design and build an attraction around a shared prompt, then present it for judging. Organizers describe it as the only hands-on engineering competition in the attractions industry. CAPED’s mission is to help students appreciate, learn about and connect with the themed entertainment industry.

CAPED’s entry — Round Table Twirl: A Knight’s Ascension — was created for this year’s portable ride challenge. Teams had to build an attraction for candy riders that could tilt 45 degrees, lift riders about a foot, fit inside a narrow transport sleeve and be taken apart and rebuilt on site. CAPED answered with an Arthurian-themed ride inspired by a disk-style attraction.

Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews served as the riders, seated in spots inspired by the Knights of the Round Table. Along steel track, the vehicle swung and spun through its cycle before ending with a sword rising from the stone. “One challenge was powering the ride vehicle,” said Raegan Fordemwalt, CAPED’s project lead for the competition. “We were trying to figure out what was feasible, but we chose a very complicated ride.”

The Impact Award recognized the work CAPED carried beyond the ride itself. Club members logged 180 hours of outreach, including 100 hours of beach cleanup with the Central Coast Aquarium in Avila Beach and visits to seven schools from San Luis Obispo to Santa Maria. In those classrooms, students brought last year’s ride and invited children to design restraints for candy riders. Fordemwalt said that work became one of the most rewarding parts of the project and marked the club’s biggest outreach effort yet.

CAPED’s broader mission shaped that effort. The club includes students from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, architecture, industrial engineering, statistics and other majors across campus. Fordemwalt said CAPED wants students from many disciplines to see a place for themselves in themed entertainment. That range of majors reflects the work that goes into themed entertainment, from ride systems and controls to design and guest experience.

Jake Schuman, CAPED’s president, said that sense of belonging starts with the club’s newest members. “I want to make freshmen feel welcomed,” he said. “I want to teach them the skills and knowledge so they want to stay.”
Students are available for interviews about the competition, the ride design and CAPED’s outreach work.

Top Photo: 
Members of Cal Poly Amusement Park Engineers and Designers, or CAPED, gather in Engineering Plaza with Round Table Twirl: A Knight’s Ascension and the awards the team earned at the 2026 Ride Engineering Competition, where it won first place in the West Division and the Impact Award.