When visiting a theme park, guests don’t think about what made their favorite character blink or smile, they just feel the magic of their favorite story coming to life. That’s by design.
As an Imagineer at Walt Disney World, Lori Kipp (MechE ’21) works behind the scenes to design the systems that make that magic possible. Her work lives at the intersection of engineering precision and storytelling restraint to make sure that nothing mechanical ever pulls guests out of the story.
Mechanical Engineering alumna Lori Kipp tests out the Tiana ride.
Kipp’s team designs the intricate systems that give animatronic characters their range of motion. She analyzes materials and engineering constraints to determine how skins attach to head mechanisms, how they deform under pressure, and how repeated movements affect the surface over time. This ensures that every smile, blink, and movement feels natural.
“It’s like playing really advanced Tetris,” Kipp laughed. “We’re constantly working with constraints because creative integrity is nonnegotiable. We can’t change who a character is by making them eight-feet-tall to hold all of the mechanical systems. We have to make the engineering work around the character.”
