No longer does Aerospace Engineering alumnus Michael Schoen have to fantasize about swinging by taut vines like Tarzan. Schoen, in his television debut, realized all the freedoms associated with being a wild animal by using the engineering skills he obtained in college.
Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet developed a new television program that utilizes a grueling engineering education to create a mechanical jungle of big horn ram proportions.
From the makers of Mythbusters comes Animal Planet’s Chasing Nature, a show that allows contestants to not only imagine themselves as an exotic animal or insect, but also to come close to being one.
The shows producers flew several of the United States’ elite engineering students to Australia for a friendly competition to mimic the actions of the earth’s most amazing creatures.
Schoen arrived in Australia for the show on a Saturday in July 2005, and had only a day to get past the jet lag before filming.
Schoen was paired with a young woman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and competed head to head against a team of students from Duke University and Stanford University.
Chasing Nature challenges humans to mimic the abilities of all kinds of animals and insects, like the large web of the golden orb web spider, the spitting ability of the archer-fish and the skull strength of a big- horn ram.
Schoen’s week-long challenge was to create a pair of mechanical arms that would allow a person to swing like an orangutan on vines for at least one hundred feet.
“We watched videos of orangutans swinging and were given days in the field for performance and days in the shop for building,” Schoen said. “I developed a great appreciation for the orangutan’s natural abilities.”
The “surreal” experience, as Schoen described it, climaxed at the end of the week with the teams testing their device, swinging over a rocky ravine.
Even though no prize was awarded, Schoen said the ability for bragging rights, if their contraption was more successful, was more than enough to make it a phenomenal experience.
Not only did Schoen get an all-expense paid trip to Australia, he also had the opportunity to play with some of the most sophisticated tools available, formed great friendships and learned a lot about how reality television is made.
“After being through the process when you watch TV, you look at it totally different — how they film and how they shoot. Everything as simple as walking in a door becomes so much more complicated,” Schoen said. “At least I got to get off camera at night; it wasn’t a 24-hour type of thing.”
Schoen was finishing his masters in Aerospace engineering in spring 2005 when he received an e-mail about Chasing Nature.
“I decided ‘what the hell,'” Schoen said. “I saw a free trip to Australia, and I was graduating, so why not?”
During the same time Schoen was applying to Chasing Nature, he was also waiting to hear about an entry-level position with the Italian car manufacturer Fiat which Schoen describes as “the company that owns Italy.”
“I was much more interested about going to Italy, and I was worrying about that,” Schoen said with a laugh.
He took an afternoon to write a statement about his interest in Chasing Nature, and before he knew it the phone was ringing and an interview was scheduled. A network representative flew from California to interview candidates along the East Coast, and she began with Schoen.
“The interview was funny because she came here and we were supposed to meet on campus, but we couldn’t because of regulations. So two hours later we met at some random hotel,” Schoen said. “Her next stop after State was Duke.”
After the interview Schoen learned he had gotten both the job in Italy and the show in Australia.
“It ended up with me causing big problems again because I had to fly from Italy to Australia, but everything worked out,” he said.
The job at Fiat began a few weeks before the filming of Chasing Nature and continues until October of 2006.
Schoen secured his employment at Fiat through a European Union program which promotes working in foreign countries. Normally the positions are reserved for Europeans but a clause exists allowing those outside of Europe to take advantage of it, creating an opportunity Schoen seized.
He now works at the largest car manufacturer in Italy as a researcher. He did his undergraduate and graduate work in aerospace engineering.
“The job market is so much larger in mechanical engineering, and the two fields are so similar that I can easily work as mechanical,” he explained.
Schoen performs as a chameleon; constantly utilizing all of his abilities to fulfill his goals, so becoming an orangutan came naturally.
The outcome of Schoen’s episode will be revealed on Tues., Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. And for an autograph you’ll have to write him in Italy or wait for him to return to the States in October.