A Conversation with a Walt Disney Imagineer

A Conversation with Walt Disney Imagineer Jonathan Chew

Jonathan Chew, Blue Sky Program Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering, presented at this year’s ECE Day, hosted by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department for its 50th anniversary. Chew detailing the relationship between imagination and engineering. Chew’s job as the Blue Sky Program Manager is to come up with the next big idea that then get incorporated into the Disney amusement parks. Check out this Q&A:

What is imagineering?

Imagineering is the blend of creative imagination and technical know-how. We work on all of the amazing theme parks and resorts around the world that are done by Disney.

Do you see a unifying trait in all Imagineers?

They’ve gotten to explore the world and have seen how things work, why things work, what makes things work. They ask the hard questions, such as “How can I improve this experience? What is fun for the guests who come to our parks everyday? How can I make that even better? How can I make that magical? How do I hide the technology so that the story shines through?” I tell people that they should be ‘T’-shaped. The big vertical bar of the ‘T’ is like your field of expertise. I am an electrical engineer, and that’s how I approach the world. The horizontal bar is sort of what makes imagineering imagineering - experience. Imagineers bring their experiences to the table during a brainstorm, during a design, during the project.

Do you have any advice for current engineering students?

Be more open-minded. It’s okay if you don’t find the solution right away. Talk to your teammates or be willing to listen to another person’s opinion. We all get into the zone where we’re like, “I’m just going to do this myself because I know how it’s done, I know the exact answer.”

Be open to accepting the thoughts and paradigms of all of those people around you, and also know what your strengths are. I am seeing it from a technical standpoint, and this is what’s important to keep in mind. But when you’re working on a team, you shouldn’t be stuck in your viewpoint.

Finally, think of yourself as creative. Sometimes, engineers don’t think they’re creative because they can’t draw or because they can’t sing or because they can’t dance, but creativity - I think the very definition of engineering is to build and to create - Arduino, Maker projects and just plain inventing. Create, create, create.

Former Walt Disney Imagineer brings flexible and surgical robotics to UC San Diego, joins Jacobs School faculty

A future in which robots can maneuver with high agility, dexterity and precision is not too far away. These flexible robots could one day assist with surgeries, navigate through tight, complex environments with ease, and be used to develop prosthetics that are capable of natural movement.

(A) Robotic systems such as the da Vinci surgical system have served as important platforms for device design and control algorithms for robot-assisted surgery. (B) New robot designs of flexible manipulators and arms provide means to control agile and dexterous motions for surgical catheters and endoscopes. (C) Actuators designed to mimic human muscle performance are designed for applications in prosthetics and animatronics. Image credit: M. Yip. 

The design and intelligent control of flexible and surgical robotics are the specialties of Michael Yip, one of the new faculty joining the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Yip received his Ph.D from the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. He will arrive in November as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego and will direct the new Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab). His research involves developing advanced algorithms that can control flexible robotics to move with high agility and dexterity. He also designs novel robotic systems that mimic the natural motion of animal and human bodies.

“Intelligent control of flexible robotics is a challenge that’s been plaguing the field. To make flexible robotics work effectively in places like the human body, we need to figure out how to control the robotics to crawl through constrained spaces and do manipulations without causing damage to their surroundings or to themselves,” said Yip.

This type of control is important in applications like robot-assisted surgery. For example, a surgeon could control a long, thin, flexible robotic device to snake its way through a patient’s body and perform surgery with high precision and safety. Use of these robotic devices could also offer less invasive surgical procedures.

Michael Yip, a new professor joining the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego.

“Rather than dissecting the patient’s body, a surgeon could just make one or two small incisions on the body to insert these surgical robotic devices,” said Yip.

Controlling flexible robotics to maneuver through tight spaces — in a minimally invasive manner — is also useful in industrial applications including manufacturing, inspection and assembly. For example, flexible robotics could be used to inspect the wiring in an airplane wing or do repairs deep within a car engine without having to disassemble any major machinery.

Yip also works on making artificial muscles and actuators that can mimic biological muscle performance. Previously, he worked as a Walt Disney Imagineer within the Disney Research division, where he developed a technology for creating low-cost artificial muscles using conductive sewing thread. These synthetic muscles could contract and expand just like human muscles and were used to make life-like animatronic hands and arms. The artificial muscles were featured this summer in Popular Mechanics and Gizmodo.

Watch out for Yip in the upcoming UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Forum on Oct. 30. He will be presenting a poster and demonstration of his work at the Technology Showcase.

Register for the Contextual Robotics Forum here.