Teams to compete in national Rube Goldberg contest
This year, teams have designed machines that will dispense hand sanitizer.
The contest is sponsored by Purdue's Phi Chapter of Theta Tau engineering fraternity and rewards machines that most effectively combine creativity with inefficiency and complexity.
The contest's namesake is the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical machines with complex mechanisms to perform simple tasks.
As many as 13 college teams may compete. Teams already registered include previous winners Purdue Society of Professional Engineers, St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minn., and Ferris State University of Big Rapids, Mich. Other registered teams are from the University of Texas, University of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University, Washington State University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Michigan Technological University of Houghton, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Black Hawk College of Moline, Ill.
"The competition should be fierce this year," said Keegan Klauke, Theta Tau's national contest chairman and an electrical and computer engineering major from Deerfield, Ill. "We have three previous winners, some perennial challengers and some new teams. There is no shortage of inventive ideas for pumping out hand sanitizer."
While 20 steps is the minimum number required to complete the task, most teams will use many more. For instance, the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers used 132 steps for the machine that won the Purdue regional contest in February.
The national High School Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will follow the Purdue national competition.
Nine teams are expected to compete. Confirmed teams are Highland Senior High School, Anderson, Ind.; Brandywine High School, Niles, Mich.; St. Catherine's High School, Racine, Wis.; Jones College Prep, Chicago; Stephen F. Austin High School, Sugar Land, Texas; Gilmer High School, Gilmer, Texas; and Maine South High School, Park Ridge, Ill.
The national and high school contests, held in the Purdue Armory, are free and open to the public. Doors open at 10 a.m. The college competition will start at 10:30 a.m., followed by the high school competition at about 12:30 p.m. Lunch will be available for purchase at the event.
Sponsors for this year's competition are BP, Lockheed Martin, Omega Engineering, Priio, Rockwell Collins, BAE Systems, Alcoa, Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Ingersoll Rand.
Rube Goldberg earned a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1904. He worked as an engineer for the city of San Francisco for less than a year before becoming a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his political cartoons published by the New York Sun.
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest dates back to 1949 when it began as a competition between two Purdue fraternities. It was held until 1955, then revived in 1983 and opened to all Purdue students. The first national contest was held in 1988.
Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu
Sources: Keegan Klauke, kklauke@purdue.edu
Alex Gaul, high school contest chairman, argual@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: B-Roll, sound bites and a video package are available at ftp://news69.uns.purdue.edu/Public/RubeGoldberg. YouTube video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOg2IpA0yw. Broadcast media needing more information should contact Jim Schenke at 765-494-6262, jschenke@purdue.edu