The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest has its roots at Purdue University where rival fraternities started a machine contest in the 1950s.

Feeding a fish is as simple as tapping fish food into a tank. Or, with the help of some everyday objects and bright ideas, it could become a fantastical, whimsical machine.  

The machine still feeds the fish, of course. It simply does it with more flair. Feeding a fish — or any pet — with a complex contraption is the task for this year’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC).

RGMCs are open to students in four divisions, online and in person: elementary school, middle school, high school and college. The regional and state winners of RGMCs will come to Purdue University to compete in the World Championship, sponsored by the College of Engineering, on March 29 in West Lafayette, Indiana. Doors open for the event, open to the public, at 8 a.m. in the Armory. The competition is from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

The 2025 contest prompt is to "feed a pet."

The RGMC is an annual challenge in which students solve everyday problems with creativity, a little humor and only easily accessible everyday objects.

The contest had its origins at Purdue in the 1950s, engaging engineering fraternities. It came to national prominence in the 1980s, when students from other universities were invited to Purdue to join the competition. Since 1988, challenges have varied from the simple activity of toasting bread to grabbing, cleaning and peeling an apple.  

But why take the time to build a whole contraption if it’s easier to simply dump food in your pet’s bowl? 

Because it’s fun, innovative and makes competitors think outside the box to solve “a simple problem in the most ridiculously inefficient way possible,” reads the Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation and Creativity website.   

The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers (PSPE) Rube Goldberg Team looks forward to RGMC every year as a break from striving for efficiency and, instead, striving to extend a daily task into a creative endeavor. Founded in 1998, the team has been active and innovative in competitions year after year, creating devices that tell stories along the journey to complete the task. The team also holds the world record for the longest Rube Goldberg machine to compete anywhere in the world, achieved in 2012. 

Two Purdue teams are competing this year: PSPE and a team from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  

Students in Purdue Engineering Student Council also are in attendance, volunteering to check-in participants, set up and even act as judges for the younger divisions. 

“We are excited to host student innovation from across the nation in a contest with Purdue roots,” said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering. “The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest provides a perfect vehicle to engage STEM enthusiasts in a fun, hands-on way that fosters teamwork and allows younger students to see older students doing what they love for college credit. Someday, we hope to welcome some of the younger contestants as Boilermaker Engineers.”