By Laura Pelner
Staff Writer

Teams from all over the country came to Purdue representing their respective universities on Saturday to compete in the 18th annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The contest was hosted by Theta Tau Fraternity and included teams from Purdue, Vanderbilt University, Oakland University, Northern Illinois University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Toledo and Hofstra University. The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest has been held at Purdue every year and Master of Ceremonies Dan Wodtke, a member of Purdue's chapter of Theta Tau, said that this "contest is Purdue's largest media event."

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers' team from the University of Texas at Austin won first place and $250 for their "Rube's Entertainment Machine." Chad Bruns, the director of the team, said that their theme came from ideas concerning "how people entertain themselves on a daily basis."

To demonstrate that idea, the machine used models of famous entertainers in various media types, such as cartoon and film characters, and also items representing different sports and popular toys. After his win, Bruns said that "it feels great and definitely was a good contest. Everyone had good machines, and for us, the best part was having two perfect runs."

Leigh Ann Heider, the director of the Purdue Society of Women Engineers' team, had similar thoughts. She said, "we did what we wanted to, had two perfect runs." The team placed third and won $50 with its machine "Traveling Through Time."

"Touring America," the machine by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' team from the University of Toledo, won second place and also the people's choice award, for a combined total of $200. Their machine was explained as a "scrapbook" and contained souvenirs from different cities throughout the United States. The audience responded well to the show Toledo's team put on with their machine because they incorporated music into the demonstration.

Each team's task this year was "to fill and seal a time capsule with models of samples of the significant inventions of the 20th century in 20 or more steps," said Wodtke.

Throughout the years of contest history, there have been a variety of other difficult tasks assigned. These have included pouring a cup of water, placing toothpaste on a toothbrush, cracking an egg without breaking the yoke and putting a stamp on a letter.

Furthermore, there were specific rules that each team's machine had to adhere to. For example, there are specific dimensions for the size of the machines. Also, each must be able to complete the task twice in nine minutes, including the resetting of the machine for the second run. Each team loses points if they have to use any human intervention to help the machine once in motion.

The judges for the contest were mechanical engineering professor Arvind Raman, electrical engineering professor Eric Furgason and a representative from Newark Electronics, Scott Steward. Newark Electronics and Dell Computers Corporation were the sponsors for the event.

Not every team was successful each time they tried to run their machine and because the judges realize that bad luck can strike, each team is allowed one reset without a deduction of points. As Wodtke said, the point of the Rube Goldberg contest is to "make simple tasks amazingly complex," and also to "take a step back and see how things work."

Chris Piano, the chairman of the competition and a member of Theta Tau Fraternity, said that he thought "it was a very successful contest; everyone had a good time and the machines looked good."

In the lobby of Elliott Hall of Music, where the contest took place, two different high schools, Minooka High School from Illinois and Noblesville High School, set up machines of their own to show interested audience members. Their task was the same as the national competition and they took it very seriously. A representative from Minooka High School said that they were "very honored to be here."