Ind. The event honors the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who drew wacky contraptions with elaborate mechanisms to perform simple tasks. Each year, college students take on the challenge of building a functional machine that Goldberg might have drawn. This year, seven universities will compete. Other universities sending teams are Purdue, the University of Texas at Austin, Northern Illinois University, Oakland University, Marquette University, and Northwestern University.
Teams qualify by winning a local contest at their university.
The challenge for 2000 is to contrive a machine that will place seven of the 20th century's greatest inventions in a time capsule. The machine must use 20 or more steps and complete the operation in less than nine minutes. Students can use any means possible to accomplish the task, and ingenuity plays a large part in the contest. The contest, which is free and open to the public, begins at 11 a.m. in the Elliott Hall of Music on Purdue University's West Lafayette campus. Students build their machines with common objects such as paper clips, yardsticks, string, duct tape and a good sense of humor.