Engineering Students Bring Holiday Magic to Life at San Jose’s Christmas in the Park

Top row (left to right): Bradley Karr, Zachary McGee, Keith Peffer, Vimal Viswanathan, Mark Bennett, Cesar Romero Callejas. Bottom row (left to right): Derek Do, Daniel Jimenez Hernandez. Photo: Derrick Meyer.

By Derrick Meyer, Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering

For more than four decades, Christmas in the Park has been a beloved San José holiday tradition, transforming downtown’s Plaza de César Chávez into a glittering wonderland of lights, music, and community-built displays. Each year, families stroll through whimsical scenes that capture the spirit of the season — and this year, one of those displays will have a special touch from San José State University’s (SJSU) mechanical engineering students.

A Project with Two Sides

When Vimal Viswanathan, a professor of mechanical engineering at SJSU, introduced the idea to his senior design students, it came with both a challenge and an opportunity. The project involved not only refurbishing a long-retired penguin display, which hadn’t been featured in over a decade, but also designing new, animatronic features to bring the scene back to life.

“There are two aspects to this project,” Viswanathan explained. “The first was refurbishing the old penguin display and making it fully functional again. The second was creating new, animatronic-style displays and mechanisms that allow the penguins to flap their wings and move realistically. That’s where mechanical engineering expertise really came into play.”

From Idea to Action

Bradley Karr, ’25 Mechanical Engineering, and Zachary McGee, ’26 Mechanical Engineering, part of the senior design team, didn’t initially plan to work on a Christmas in the Park project. In fact, it wasn’t even on the list of official options until the first day of the course.

“The project just kind of popped up,” McGee said. “When we heard it was a collaboration with Christmas in the Park, it immediately caught my attention. I’ve always been interested in the theme park industry, so the idea of working on animatronic displays felt really special, even if it was a little intimidating at first.”

Karr agreed, adding that the project stood out for its creativity and connection to the community. “It just seemed like a fun, hands-on way to wrap up our degree,” he said. “We knew it would be challenging, but that’s what made it appealing.”

How the Project Came to Campus

The opportunity came to SJSU through Laura Hughes, ’04 Electrical Engineering, who works closely with the City of San José and is an active supporter of Christmas in the Park. She connected the idea with retired Engineering Professor Bell Wei, who then passed it along to Viswanathan, the senior project coordinator at the time. After meeting with city representatives and Christmas in the Park organizers, Viswanathan saw the potential for a meaningful, multidisciplinary project.

“This kind of collaboration is exactly what we want for a senior design project,” he said. “Students have to define the problem, interview the client, figure out specifications and see the entire engineering process through from start to finish.”

Engineering in Motion

As with most real-world projects, the students encountered their share of challenges, from budget limitations to time constraints. Initially, they planned to install a slip ring mechanism that would allow the animatronic penguins to rotate safely on a carousel without wires tangling. However, time and cost forced them to scale back.

“We had to simplify our design,” McGee explained. “Instead of a rotating system, we focused on a few stationary animatronic penguins that could move and flap their wings. It was still exciting to see it all come together.”

Safety and environmental considerations also factored into the design. Because the display is static and set back from public reach, the students focused on ensuring the mechanisms were reliable, durable, and easy for Christmas in the Park staff to maintain over multiple seasons.

From Classroom to Community

Throughout the project, the team applied lessons from class to the field — from design prioritization tools like House of Quality to customer communication and iterative problem-solving.

“One of the biggest takeaways was learning to balance creativity with practicality,” McGee said. “We wanted to make the coolest animatronics possible, but we also had to think about cost, time and long-term usability.”

When asked what they were most proud of, both students agreed: “Seeing the penguins finally move — after months of planning, modeling, 3D printing, and assembly — was an amazing feeling,” Karr said. “It’s one thing to design something on a computer, but seeing it come to life in front of you is something else entirely.”

Looking Ahead

The collaboration has already inspired new opportunities. Christmas in the Park’s technical advisors have expressed interest in partnering with San José State again, and Viswanathan hopes to expand future projects to include students from industrial design and other disciplines.

“Industrial design students can help with aesthetics and presentation, while mechanical engineers handle the mechanisms,” Viswanathan said. “Together, they can create n;phdisplays that are not only functional, but visually beautiful.”

He sees these projects as a way to inspire the next generation of engineers — much like exhibits at San José’s Tech Interactive Museum. “When children see something moving, reacting, or lighting up, it sparks curiosity,” he said. “If a few kids walk through Christmas in the Park, see these displays, and think, ‘I want to build something like that,’ then we’ve succeeded.”

Visitors can see the results of the SJSU engineering students’ work and other displays from November 29 through January 1( including Christmas Day) at Plaza de César Chávez, in downtown San Jose.