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.

ECE Day 2016: Department Celebrates 50 Years

Electrical engineering students and industry professionals converged at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering on March 31, 2016 for ECE Day, hosted by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department for its 50th anniversary. The day featured industry speakers, poster presentations featuring current research by ECE students and faculty, and Arduino workshops — even a jousting arena, lego competitions and a conversation with a Disney Imagineer!

Freshman computer engineer Elise Wong and senior electrical engineer Christopher Ellis of UC San Diego’s IEEE branch co-led the ECE Day planning committee, which included members of Tau Beta Pi (TBP), Etta Kappa Nu (HKN), the ECE Undergraduate Student Council. According Ellis, ECE Day was an idea that grew out of something else: “We originally wanted to invite industry to come in and tell students about the transition from school to the workforce.”

Logistical obstacles pushed the original event back, but Ellis says that the extra time allowed the planning team to make ECE Day a larger, more interactive event. Student organizations, including Divergent Engineering, Students for the Exploration and Development Space (SEDS), and Virtual Reality Club at UCSD (VR Club), showcased their current projects and encouraged interested students to join. In addition, Atmel Truck: Tech on Tour invited attendees into their trailer for an open house on Warren Mall.

Co-Founder of Qualcomm Irwin Jacobs gave a keynote speech regarding his life and career from academia to industry. Other speakers included Larry Stullich and David Pritchett, representatives of Northrop Grunman, and Slava Rokitski, who serves as Senior Manager of System Design at Cymer. Professor Mohan Trivedi and Assistant Professor Vikash Gilja of the ECE department also presented about their ongoing research projects.

Jacobs described how every student must decided whether or not they should attend graduate school, and specifically how he chose to apply to only a single school and fellowship, otherwise he would go directly into industry. “It hit home because I’m having the exact same thoughts,” Ellis said.

For the electrical engineers who attended, Ellis hopes they connected with potential opportunities to get involved, whether through student organizations or in faculty research. For future ECE Days, he wants to reach out more broadly to non-ECE majors and expose them to the exciting progress in the realm of electrical engineering.

“We want to get other students who are maybe bio majors or psychology majors to see what it’s like, to see what we’re doing, said Ellis.

Check out this post: A Conversation with A Walt Disney Imagineer