Purdue to Host Rube Goldberg Contest

Last year's contest featured machines designed to open an umbrella. (Image courtesy of Purdue University)

Purdue University is hosting the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest this weekend. Teams of high school and university students will demonstrate their complex machines designed to perform a basic task for a shot at advancing to the national championship later this year.

The goal of this year’s competition is to design a multi-step machine comprised of household items that will ultimately be used to apply a band-aid. Five high school teams will take part in the Division II competition and five university teams will compete in the Division III competition this weekend.

Three of the university teams come from Purdue, including last year’s runner-up, the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers. Joining them are the Association of Mechanical and Electrical Technologists, which won the regional contest last year, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The competition will open to the public at 10:30 a.m. at the Purdue Armory. Machine demonstrations are scheduled to begin at 11:30. You can view last year’s Purdue regional-winning machine, which was designed to open an umbrella, in the video below: