The High School Design Competition (HSDC) at EOH is great way to get exposure to engineering principles such as design, testing, and redesigning, as well as teamwork, and communication skills. The contest is for teams of 2-12 high school students to build a Rube Goldberg Machine which will then be judged against other high school teams from across the state. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that completes a simple task in the most complicated way possible. It is very similar to the board game mousetrap, and they are very enjoyable to construct and watch. The teams compete by performing runs of their machine in front of the judges. Teams are encouraged to build the wackiest, craziest, most outrageous machines possible. Any questions and concerns can be directed to Michal Obstoj at (eoh-hsdc@ec.illinois.edu).

The public is invited to watch the contest live at the Wesley Foundation on Friday, March 8th from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

Competition Details

This year’s competition will be held the Friday of EOH, March 8th. The task for this year’s competition is to Hammer a Nail. More information and the official rulebook can be found at Rube Goldberg Official Website. You can register for the HSDC @ the University of Illinois through the Rube Goldberg Society website, at http://rubegoldberg.com/contest_form2. The registration fee is $50, paid directly to the Rube Goldberg Society, and the deadline for registering is February 15, 2013.