Purdue University News Service
1132 Engineering Administration Building
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1132
Voice: 765-494-2096
FAX: 765-494-0401
March 1998
GOLDBERG CONTESTANTS WILL HIT THE SNOOZE BAR IN NATIONAL CONTEST
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Video and photographs of past contests are available. Journalists will not be allowed on the stage with the machines during the competition, but they are welcome on stage before and after the contest. Purdue will provide video and photo pool coverage and direct audio and video feeds. An ISDN line is available for radio interviews. Video b-roll, photos and a news release will be available the afternoon of the event. Satellite assistance is available. If you have questions, call Grady Jones, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2079; e-mail, [email protected]
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ã Those of us who are jolted awake by the sound of an alarm clock will appreciate the efforts of the college students from around the country competing in the 10th annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on April 4 at Purdue University. This year's everyday task is to turn off the alarm ã while leaving the clock intact.
Each year, teams of college students from all over the United States are challenged to build complicated and often humorous machines to accomplish a very simple task ã make a cup of coffee, put a stamp on an envelope, screw in a light bulb ã in 20 or more steps. This year, students from competing universities are building contraptions to turn off an alarm clock. The 1997 national contest drew teams from Texas, New York, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin.
The contest, which is free and open to the public, begins at 11:30 a.m. in Purdue's Elliott Hall of Music.
Students build their machines by combining the principles of physics and engineering with common objects, such as golf balls, mouse traps, bicycle gears, children's toys, rubber tubing and an abundance of duct tape.
The event honors the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical machines with complex mechanisms to perform simple tasks.
Purdue's entry was chosen in February at a local contest. Using materials that could have come from their childhood toy boxes and Dad's workshop, a team of seven members of the student chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers earned top honors with a machine based on the theme "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." It used 26 complex steps and all manner of toy vehicles to turn off an alarm clock with no human intervention and within a time limit.
Each machine must run, be reset and run again in nine minutes. Points are taken off if students have to assist the machine once it's started. The teams also will be judged and awarded points based on the creative use of materials and use of related themes.
Last year's national winner was the "Rube Goldberg Pit Crew" from the University of Texas at Austin. The team's machine took 35 steps and about a minute and a half to load a CD into a player and play it.
In addition to cash prizes for the top three teams, a "People's Choice" award will be given to the team whose machine gets the most votes from audience members.
Student organizers of the contest maintain a World Wide Web page at http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~thetatau/RUBE/
CONTACT: Chad Goze, contest chairman, (765) 743-2461; e-mail, [email protected]
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