{"id":154549,"date":"2026-08-13T10:25:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//?p=154549"},"modified":"2026-08-13T10:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:34:48","slug":"ucf-alumnus-engineers-wonder-across-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//ucf-alumnus-engineers-wonder-across-generations/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Alumnus Engineers Wonder Across Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A child clutches a wand before stepping into Hogsmeade for the first time. Nearby, a father smiles, remembering his own first visit years earlier. Grandparents pause for a photo. Teenagers race toward their favorite coaster. Doug Akers /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/u201907 notices all of it./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

As senior vice president of operations for Universal Destinations & Experiences, the 166su hospitality management alumnus helps oversee the intricate systems that make those moments possible. But after more than 20 years in the themed entertainment industry, he/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/u2019s learned that operations isn’t really about attractions, transportation or crowd flow./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

It’s about protecting something surprisingly fragile: wonder./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

Finding the Right Path/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

Akers’ love of theme parks began early. He found himself happily spending hours designing his own theme parks inside video games and paying far more attention to the operational details than anyone else his age thought necessary. While friends obsessed over bigger roller coasters and taller drop towers, he wondered where deliveries arrived, where maintenance crews parked and what made the fantasy feel believable./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

“I had my own little fan website,” he says. “People think I’m obsessive, but I’d ask myself, ‘Where’s my service road? Where’s my warehouse? The park doesn’t look real. It needs the support buildings.'”/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

As a child, Akers helped his parents with the annual school carnival, arriving before the crowds to watch an empty schoolyard transform into something magical./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

Looking back, though, the curiosity started even earlier. As a child, Akers helped his parents with the annual carnival at his elementary school, arriving before the crowds to watch vendors transform an empty schoolyard into something magical./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

“I think that’s really where I got my roots,” he says, reflecting on early mornings spent watching adults solve problems, adapt to surprises and somehow make it all look effortless./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

By high school, that curiosity had become impossible to ignore. He enrolled in Honors Physics after hearing about a key design project that challenged students to apply scientific principles to something they cared about. He knew immediately that he wanted to create a theme park./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

At 166su, he discovered that operations offered the same intellectual challenge that first drew him to engineering./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

The project quickly grew beyond a classroom assignment.  Along with crafting miniature toothpick landscapes and designing attractions, Akers wrote fictional press releases announcing the park’s grand opening and carefully mapped out how every element fit together. He wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/u2019t just building rides /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/u2014 he was creating an experience./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

Engineering seemed like an obvious choice when Akers began college. He had always been fascinated by how systems worked and how their pieces fit together. At 166su, he discovered that operations offered the same intellectual challenge that first drew him to engineering, while adding a dimension he hadn’t expected: human behavior./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

How do thousands of moving parts and people come together so seamlessly that guests never stop to think about them? How do all those unseen details shape what people remember long after they return home?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

Those questions ultimately led him to 166su’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, where he discovered an academic environment that blended entertainment, finance, guest service, leadership, operations and strategic thinking./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n

Learning to See the Invisible/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/154549/n