April 6, 2005

Spotlight shines on national Rube Goldberg Machine contest

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Students at Purdue University are going to a lot of trouble to turn on a flashlight.

The 22nd annual national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday (April 9) at the Purdue Armory. Sponsored by Theta Tau fraternity, the contest features teams of students that have designed machines to do simple tasks in the most complicated ways possible.

For this year's contest, machines must remove two batteries from a flashlight, replace them and turn on the flashlight. While 20 steps is the minimum number required to complete the task, most teams use many more.

Journalists can cover the contest. Purdue will provide video and photo pool coverage of the event. Video will be available via satellite uplink after the contest. An ISDN line is available for radio interviews. Video b-roll, photos, audio clips and a news release will be available the afternoon of the contest. If you have questions, contact Matt Holsapple at the Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2073, mholsapple@purdue.edu. Questions about video or requests for video of previous years' contests can be directed to Jesica Webb at (765) 494-2079, (765) 423-7326 (pager), jwebb@purdue.edu.

Doors open for the contest at 10:30 a.m. The Purdue News Service will take photographs during the contest, which will be available to the media, and journalists will be able to take photographs of machines and interview students after the contest is completed.

Among the competitors will be the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers, winners of the local Purdue competition on March 5. A news release about that contest is available.

Other universities that are expected to be represented in the competition include the University of Texas at Austin, Ferris State University, Michigan State University, University of Arizona and University of Michigan.

A satellite uplink of contest winners and highlights will be available from 5-5:15 p.m. EST (4-4:15 p.m. Indiana time) at the following coordinates:

Trouble reports with the satellite connection should be reported to PanAmSat at (800) 321-3959 or (404) 381-2600. If you miss the downlink and need a copy of the tape, contact Webb.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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