The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom took the world by storm earlier this year, in part due to Link’s newfound abilities to construct just about anything you can think of. From explosive security systems, to Beyblades, to musical instruments, players were letting their imaginations run wild with all of the engineering possibilities in the game. One university professor, however, thought of a way to bring Link’s new engineering skills to the real world.
As Ryan Sochol, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, was playing through Tears of the Kingdom, he was surprised by the “emphasis on machine design and engineering.” This emphasis inspired him to create a one-credit engineering course at the University of Maryland, offered to second year mechanical engineering students. Ryan gives a quick overview of the elective course in a YouTube video, which you can check out in full below:
In an interview with Kotaku, Sochol stated that he actually had to end up raffling spots in the class off, due to an overwhelming amount of interest from students, and that half of the current class has never even played a Zelda game before. In the future, he hopes to expand the course’s curriculum and make it a more intensive, three-credit course. For now, though, he intends to continue to offer the course for many semesters to come, as long as there is funding and interest from students.
Every detail Ryan provides about his course is absolutely fascinating — in both the video and in Kotaku’s full article — so we really recommend diving in and checking out both if you have some time.
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Written by Jaxson Tapp
As a lover of gaming and the written word, Jaxson currently fills his time not only with playing games, but also writing about them. Ready for anything, Jaxson’s passion for puzzle games, JRPGs, tough platformers, and whimsical indies helps him bring a well-rounded opinion to Nintendo Wire’s reporting.
