Purdue News
Purdue News
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April 2, 2002 National Rube Goldberg contest raises flag SaturdayWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The 14th annual Theta Tau Fraternity's National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest unfurls Saturday (4/6) with a salute to Old Glory as four collegiate and two high school teams compete to raise the American flag.
The contest begins at 11 a.m. in the Cumberland Place Exhibition Center in West Lafayette, Ind., near the Purdue campus. Teams from Purdue and three other universities that won regional competitions will compete to see which machine can secure, raise and wave the national flag in at least 20 steps. The two high school teams also competed in contests and were invited as exhibition teams. The Purdue University Society of Professional Engineers' team will defend the university's national title. Last year, the Purdue student chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers won the national contest with a machine that paid tribute to New York City. Teams confirmed for this year's national competition include: • Hofstra University from Hempstead, N.Y., Theta Tau, Omega Beta chapter; • the University of Toledo, Theta Tau, Chi Beta chapter; and • the University of Texas at Austin, Theta Tau, Psi Beta chapter. High school teams displaying their machines include: Plainfield High School, Plainfield, Ill., and Greenfield Central High School, Greenfield, Ind. Plainfield is the winner of the Argonne Laboratory contest in Chicago. This is the second year that the Illinois team will appear as an exhibition team. The contest honors the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical, complicated machines to perform very simple tasks. The student-built machines will be judged on completion of the task, creativity, the number of steps involved and how well they embrace the Rube Goldberg spirit. Points are deducted if students have to assist the machine once it has started. Teams also will be judged and awarded points based on the creative use of their materials and related themes. Shawn S. Jordan, a senior majoring in computer engineering from Fort Wayne, Ind., said he and his Purdue Society of Professional Engineers' teammates drew inspiration from trips to science museums and watching the Learning Channel to come up with their theme. Their "Mission to Mars" machine hoisted the U.S. flag over a simulated mini-Martian landscape to the strains of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and Lenny Kravitz's rocker "Fly Away" to win the local competition at Purdue on Saturday, Feb. 9. The machine employed items such as a rocket-activated pump, a bicycle-crank arm that launched an air rocket and a teeter-totter, which docked with an International Space Station. Steps incorporating a water-screw Martian aqueduct and a baking soda-and-vinegar volcano, a little Martian landrover and yodeling astronaut triggered a sequence of events that accomplished the mission to raise and wave the flag. The winning team dedicated more than 700 man-hours since September working on their entry and story-boarding the theme and process, Jordan said. In previous contests, students' machines have been required to select, clean and peel an apple; make a cup of coffee; toast a piece of bread; put a stamp on an envelope; and drop a penny into a piggy bank. Winners have appeared on "Late Night With David Letterman, CBS' "This Morning," ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today," "Newton's Apple" and CNN. Rube Goldberg Satellite CoordinatesHighlights from the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will be available Saturday (4/6) via satellite between 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. EST. Satellite Information: SBS6/06 (74' W) U/L: 14147.500 MHz Horizontal D/L: 11847.500 MHz Vertical Allocated Bandwidth (MHz): 36.000 If you have trouble with the satellite connection please call 1-800-321-3959 or (765) 494-1032 for assistance. If you have any questions feel free to give Jesica Webb a call, (765) 494-2079. On Saturday, she can be paged at (765) 423-7326. Writer: Grant Flora, (765) 494-2073, gflora@purdue.edu Source: Chris Piano, contest chairman, chairman@rubemachine.com Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu Related Web sites: PHOTO CAPTION: A publication-quality photograph is available at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/rubenatl.preview.jpeg.
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