Matt Liskowycz, captain of the Penn State Brandywine team, shows a young spectator how the machine works
at the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
Penn State Rube Goldberg champs compete at nationals
West Lafayette, Ind.—Penn State Brandywine faced tough competition at the 2008 national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
on Apr. 5 at Purdue University. Although their machine ran flawlessly in one of the two judged rounds—and required only
two human interventions in the other—first, second and third place honors went to Purdue, Texas A&M University
and the University at Buffalo, respectively.
Penn State Brandywine earned the chance to represent the Nittany Lions at the national competition by winning the Penn
State Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Mar. 1 at University Park. This annual "Olympics of Complexity" pushes
students beyond conventional problem-solving by challenging them to design a machine that completes a task in the most
convoluted and wacky way. The competition rewards machines that most effectively combine creativity with inefficiency
and complexity.
The 2008 national challenge was to assemble a hamburger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two
vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between two bun halves. The Penn State Brandywine machine featured at Big Ten
football theme and was a favorite among the spectators.
Other schools competing at the national level this year included Ferris State University, Michigan Technological
University and the University of Texas-Austin.
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