Cal Poly float wins Rose Parade award

January 2, 2014

The Cal Poly float won the Crown City Innovation Trophy at the Rose Parade in Pasadena Wednesday.

The float, “Bedtime Buccaneers,” designed by Cal Poly students at San Luis Obispo and Pomona campuses showed children, pets and stuffed animals playing on a bed transformed into a pirate ship.

Bedtime Buccaneers featured a Rose Parade first: a system for making the flowers move on their own. The movement created a ripple effect of blue flowers representing water around the ship.

Students in the Mustang 60 lab at the San Luis Obispo campus designed the flower movement system.

The float was the only in the 2014 parade designed and built in entirely by students.

“This project is the epitome of Learn by Doing,” Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said in a news release Wednesday. “It also demonstrates working across disciplines. There are all types of majors working here, from both campuses.”