“I’m so glad that this amazing contest is coming home to Purdue where it started,” said Zach Umperovitch, the Rube Goldberg Inc. National Contest Director.

The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest® originated at Purdue University in the 1950s, between rival engineering fraternities. It came to national prominence in the 1980s, when students from other universities were invited to Purdue to join the competition. Today, the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest® includes hundreds of schools across the country, engaging STEM students from 8 years old to college-age. “Rube has always served as a sort of engineering olympics,” said Umperovitch. “We’re thrilled to see all students from all grade levels show off their STEM skills in the most fun way possible!”

History of whimsy

This year marks the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest’s® 35th anniversary. Every year, teams are tasked with creating a complex machine to accomplish a simple task — sharpen a pencil, squeeze juice from an orange, or open an umbrella (this year’s task is to put toothpaste on a toothbrush). It’s an opportunity for students to assemble machines using classroom principles of physics and science, but also to exercise their creativity by telling a story and working together to create the most aesthetically-pleasing machine.

There’s no one better qualified to organize this contest than Umperovitch, a Purdue alum who won several contests when he was a student in the 2010s — setting new Guinness World Records, and even demonstrating his team's machine on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He’s gone on to make a career out of it, co-hosting the Discovery show Contraption Masters with Richard Hammond, and building custom machines for everyone from Disney to Google to ESPN.

As a Purdue student, Zach Umperovitch (back left) anchored the record-setting 2012 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest® team, who built a 300-step contraption to inflate and pop a balloon. Umperovitch is now the National Contest Director for Rube Goldberg Inc. (Photo provided by Andy Jessop)

“Rube Goldberg changed my life,” said Umperovitch, who will emcee the Purdue event. “There’s just something about working together with a team to accomplish a goal, even if it seems silly at the time. It’s about understanding the fundamentals, and then taking that extra step to make your machine just a little bit special. It’s the perfect combination of STEM and silliness, and anyone at any age can get involved to build their own!”

Rube Goldberg Inc. is collaborating with Purdue Engineering Student Council (PESC) and Wonderland Education, an experiential learning center in West Lafayette, to bring the live event to Purdue. “This is the perfect vehicle to get students engaged with STEM in a real hands-on way,” said Rebecca Goodman, Wonderland’s director of community engagement. “You can see the excitement in these students as they’ve worked so hard to build and display their machines. With Zach’s passion and history with both Purdue and Rube Goldberg, this event will be an amazing showcase of ingenuity and teamwork, which the whole family will enjoy!”

The 2024 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest® takes place Saturday, April 6, at the Purdue Armory. Admission is free, and parking is free at the University Street Parking Garage.

Schedule (times are approximate):
9:00 a.m. Event start
9:15 a.m. Apprentice division (grades 3-5)
10:30 a.m. Division I (grades 6-8)
12:30 p.m. Division II (high school)
2:00 p.m. Division III (collegiate)

The event will also be livestreamed on the Zach's Contraptions YouTube channel

Contact: Zach Umperovitch, zach@rubegoldberg.org