About
Founded in 2011 by a small group of fewer than 10 members, the University of Arizona’s Rube Goldberg Club is in its 11th year and has over 100 past and active members. Having attended the Division III National Rube Goldberg Contest four times, the club has won multiple awards, including multiple Rube Goldberg Legacy Awards, which are awarded to the machine that best represents the quirky spirit of Rube Goldberg.
Rube Goldberg was a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, best known for his complex and impractical chain reaction inventions. Rube himself was trained as an engineer and integrated his love of inventing and art into his work. This is the driving force within the University of Arizona's Rube Goldberg Club. The balance of technical design and creative out-of-the-box solutions offers a unique hands-on STEM experience that Arizona students from a range of disciplines are drawn to.
Each year the team must work within the strict requirements of the RGBC. The rules require space, step count, noise, runtime, reset time, and safety constraints. The machine is designed and constructed entirely by student team members and not only needs to run consistently but be taken apart and reassembled for transport across the country to the national contest. Whether it be weekly yard sale-ing or the occasional dumpster dive, the majority of the machine is constructed from found items.
The club offers any student the opportunity to enhance their design and build skills, gain experience leading a team, communicate and work with others, balance a budget, and most importantly have fun.
This year we plan to promote and display the machine internally at the University of Arizona through events like E-Week, and to attend and place at a Rube Goldberg Machine contest.
Our History
2011-12 Inflate and pop a balloon
Theme: Wilma Wildcat and the Restless Restroom
This inaugural team was a small group of less than 10 members and set the groundwork and traditions still in place today.
RGMC Rube Goldberg Legacy Award
UofA College of Engineering Build Project of the Year
2012-13 Hammer a nail
Membership tripled to over twenty active members during this formative and influential year.
RGMC 2nd Place
RGMC Rube Goldberg Legacy Award
UofA College of Engineering Build Project of the Year
2013-14 Zip a zipper
Theme: Wacky Woodland Wanderings
RGMC 3rd Place
2014-15 Shine a shoe
Theme: Kitchen
Displayed machine at Las Vegas Science and Technology Festival and the Arizona Science Center.
Did not attend RGMC.
2015-16 Open an umbrella
Theme: Western Saloon
2016-17 Apply a band-aid
Theme: Magic Show
Did not attend RGMC.
2017-18 Pour a bowl of cereal
Theme: Fancy Living
RGMC Rube Goldberg Legacy Award
2018-19 Toothpaste on a Toothbrush
Theme: Movie Set
This year we attended the San Antonio Maker Faire to show our machine to the San Antonio community.
No official RGMC
2019-20 Ring a Doorbell
Theme: Alice in Wonderland
In addition to making a machine for competition, this year we also built a machine themed around student life designed to cut a ribbon for the University of Arizona Honors College's Honors Village Grand Opening.
Attended the Southern Texas Chain Reaction Competition at the University of Texas, Austin.
First Place
People's Choice award
2020-21 Wrap a Present
Theme: Virtual House Tour
Our team decided to go virtual this year in the name of public health and safety. We are constructing a Rube Goldberg machine, all online! How? Our members are each taking over parts of the machine, which they will build in their own homes and then film. At the end, we will cut all the videos together to create our virtual Rube Goldberg machine!
2021-22 Put on Sunglasses
Theme: Men in Black
This year we moved! We got a new home in ECE 112.
Members of the 2011-12 team standing in front of their machine before heading to Nationals in W. Lafayette, IN.
In 2019-2020, the task was to ring a doorbell.
