Rube Goldberg Contest at Purdue
Zach Umperovitch (in hat) adjusts the PSPE/SHPE machine at the local Rube Goldberg competition Saturday at Purdue. The team won the competition and will compete in the national contest March 31. Also pictured are team members David Cannon (left), Alex Weaver (top) and Adam Bahrainwala. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)
What is the competition?
Inspired by cartoonist Rube Goldberg, college students nationwide compete to design a machine that uses the most complex process to complete a simple task - put a stamp on an envelope, screw in a light bulb, make a cup of coffee - in 20 or more steps.
The competition is sponsored by the Purdue University campus chapter of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.
What is the 2013 task?
The task will be to hammer a nail.
When are the 2013 contests?
Dates and times will be announced later.
Who were the 2012 Regional winners?
A team from the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers on Saturday (Feb. 25) won the 30th annual Purdue Regional Rube Goldberg Machine Contest with a machine that traces the competition's history. Full news release
Who were the 2012 National winners?
A team from St. Olaf College, a private liberal arts school in Northfield, Minn., won the 25th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Saturday (March 31) at Purdue University.
It was the second time St. Olaf has won the national competition. The school also won in 2009, the first year it entered the contest. Full news release
How did the contest gain national prominence?
The contest began as a rivalry between two Purdue engineering fraternities and was popular at Purdue in the 1940s and 1950s. It was revived in 1983. Since then, winners have appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Newton's Apple," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "Late Night With David Letterman," NBC's "Today," CBS's "This Morning," CBS News, "Beyond 2000," CNN and ABC's "Good Morning America."