It’s All About Inventions!
RALEIGH, N.C. (April 22, 2017) - Teams of engineering students from Wake Tech and Durham Tech faced off today in a competition that literally got wheels turning! Their challenge: to design and build a “Rube Goldberg” machine that could perform a simple task in a not-so-simple way.
The Rube Goldberg Competition featured 89 teams of students working to create a machine that could pop a balloon. The creations had to be developed with at least five distinct steps and had to rely on principles of physics – gravity, force, mechanics, magnetism, sound waves, light, or electricity. They also had to incorporate safety features, keep within certain dimensions, and meet budget requirements. Students documented the design process and wrote up reports as part of the assignment. Top winners received cash prizes.
The Rube Goldberg Competition is the final team project for students in Intro to Engineering. It allows them to apply STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts to real-world projects and develop team-building skills in a creative and fun way. These students are pursuing the Associate in Engineering degree and planning to transfer to four-year institutions for further study.
The annual event is named for Rube Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and engineer whose work depicts elaborate contraptions of levers, pulleys, wheels and gears completing simple, everyday tasks. It is sponsored by Calyx Engineers and Consultants, a civil engineering firm and S&ME, an environmental engineering firm, both headquartered in Raleigh.
