If you describe how to build it, can they make it? Some 140 students from across the region will find out Saturday, April 28, during the seventh annual Rube Goldberg Engineering Competition from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Memorial Fieldhouse.
This year’s competition pits 28 teams representing area middle and high schools in an engineering challenge to invent a machine no larger than 5 feet in length, width and depth that can open an ordinary umbrella.
The national competition is named for the late Rube Goldberg, an engineer and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. His cartoons appeared in thousands of daily newspapers from 1914 to 1964 depicting “inventions” which epitomized “man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results.”
In keeping with that theme, the competition involves making simple, ordinary tasks unnecessarily complex, cumbersome and convoluted by taking a two or three-step task and creating a machine to accomplish it in least 20 steps.
“Having a good time is paramount so we try to minimize the contest and competitiveness of the event,” said James N. Hedrick, contest chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “What’s important is working together as a team on science and math-related projects and having fun in the process.”
The competition is sponsored by GE Volunteers, Lockheed Martin, KAPL Nova, the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium and the Union College Admissions Office and Engineering program.
Last year’s winning team—Southern Adirondack Education Center representing Washington, Saratoga, Hamilton and Essex counties BOCES — have sponsored three separate teams competing in this year’s event. The challenge was to create a machine that could putt a golf ball.
“Many teams come back each year and the number continues to increase, which is a double-edged sword,” said Hedrick. “We’ve never turned away any teams, but funding is limited to sponsor contributions. And, we’re committed to providing the $100 to each team to allow schools that couldn’t normally purchase supplies to be able to participate.”
When the competition was started at Union in 2000 by former Dean of Engineering Robert T. Balmer (now Emeritus), they borrowed the format of the national competition, but deviated in the tasks they assigned. In prior years, high school teams have even suggested tasks that have been used in the competitions.
Past challenges have included sharpening a pencil, toasting a slice of bread, screwing a light bulb into a socket , putting toothpaste on a toothbrush and making a bologna sandwich.
The winning machine will be displayed at the Schenectady museum, along with a film of the competition.
For detailed information about the contest and a complete schedule of events visit: http://engineering.union.edu/me_dept/rube/.