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Biology students out to prove Rube Goldberg contest isn’t just for engineers

A group of Biology students is out to prove that the Rube Goldberg Machine contest isn’t just for engineers. Led by Biology majors Kent Williams (seated in photo) and Aaron Dukes (standing in photo), the Beta Beta Beta biology honorary fraternity is hard at work on a contraption that will perform this year’s Rube Goldberg challenge: to shred five sheets of paper, one at a time, in a minimum of 20 steps.

Inspired by cartoonist Rube Goldberg, college students nationwide compete to design a machine that uses the most complex process to complete a simple task. The competition is sponsored by the Purdue campus chapter of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.

The contest began as a rivalry between two Purdue engineering fraternities and was popular at Purdue in the 1940s and 1950s. It was revived in 1983. Since then, winners have appeared on “Newton’s Apple,” “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” “Late Night With David Letterman,” NBC’s “Today,” CBS’s “This Morning,” CBS News, “Beyond 2000,” CNN and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Kent and Aaron say they had two reasons to enter this year’s Rube Goldberg Contest. “We’re always looking for ways to make Biology students aware of Tri Beta,” says Kent. “Having the group build an entry for Rube Goldberg is a good way to get our name out there.” Aaron adds, “And we want to show what biology majors can do. We’re scientists, and we have a very analytical way of thinking and problem-solving.”

The Tri Beta entry will be a contraption with a biology-related theme. The details of their plans are a carefully guarded secret, and they requested that no photos be taken of their schematic, drawn on a whiteboard covering one wall of their workroom. “To say the competition is fierce is putting it lightly,” says Aaron.

The apparatus will include a wheel showing the evolution of man, a double helix, a brain that triggers an axon to fire an action potential, a synapse, a neurotransmitter, a viral phage, a cell, and peas coming from Gregor Mendel’s mouth.

The team’s work space is in an empty downtown building owned by a staffer in the Biological Sciences Department, Paul Grover, who offered the space and his own help to the team. “I mentioned to Paul once that we were looking for a place to work, and he offered this place to us,” says Aaron.

A white board filled with drawings and ideas hangs on the wall behind a large work table in one room, while in another room masking tape marks the allowable dimensions of the project. The presence of heat, light, a refrigerator and a microwave make it perfect in the team’s eyes. They’re delighted with the space, though it’s in a not-so-great neighborhood and is in some need of repair. “If we were to win this competition, we’d like to repay Paul for his help to us by helping him out with some of the repairs to this building,” Aaron says.

All Tri Beta members are invited to help work on the project, but Aaron and Kent say that so far they’re the only ones, along with a friend who is an electrical engineering major. They’re always on the lookout for materials they can use. “We’re trying to do this with a minimum of expense,” says Kent. “This being our first year, we don’t have a lot of starter money. Our group has done some fundraising projects to help pay for this, but we still need money and materials.”

They have collected most of their materials by “dumpster diving” and from the local Goodwill store, with a few purchases from local hardware stores. Kent and Aaron welcome any donations of money or materials. “Any junk people have is welcome,” Kent says, “especially anything with wire, DC motors, or games with moving parts. And of course, money to help with the expenses would be great!”

“We’re out of our element here–it’s not like we’re competing against engineers in a contest to dissect frogs,” Kent says. “We can identify a pancreas in a snap, but this is different for us,” Aaron adds.

“We don’t have all the expertise,” Aaron adds, “but we’re doing this like true scientists–through trial and error. We’re learning from what goes right and what doesn’t go right.”

The Rube Goldberg competition will take place on March 4, 2006. Anyone interested in donating money or materials to the Tri Beta team can contact Kent (kewillia@purdue.edu) or Aaron (adukes@purdue.edu).

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