Algonquin native's team wins prize in annual Rube Goldberg contest

Samantha Mader of Algonquin, a student at Purdue University in West Layfayette, Ind., is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which took second place in the 26th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Feb. 23.

Other members of the team are Steve Tomuta of Schaumburg; Pat Alonzi of Naperville; Adam Eller of downstate Greenville; Eric Kopczynski and Jim Mumford of South Bend, Ind; Dan Zaksheske of Westerville, Ohio; Jerad Cole of Auburn, Ind.; Andrew Crandall of Doylestown, Pa; Will Groff of Brielle, N.J.; Tom Caproni of Ripley, Ohio; and Aalap Dighe of Philadelphia.

The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers scored its fourth consecutive first-place finish, making a hamburger in the most inefficient way possible. The team accomplished the task in 101 steps.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers team took second place with its machine titled "Across America," which featured replicas of a cactus, a Texas meat-packing plant, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Space Needle in Seattle.

The competition pays homage to the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical machines with complex mechanisms to perform simple tasks.

Goldberg earned a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1904. He worked as an engineer for the city of San Francisco for less than a year before becoming a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his political cartoons published by the New York Sun.

Winners of the regional competitions held around the nation will come to Purdue for the April 5 national competition.

In past years, teams in the national competition have included Purdue, Ferris State University, the University of Texas at Austin, Hofstra University, Ohio State University, the University of Toledo and George Washington University.

In previous contests, students' machines have been required to squeeze the juice from an orange and then pour the juice into a glass; select, clean and peel an apple; make a cup of coffee; toast a piece of bread; put a stamp on an envelope; and drop a penny into a piggy bank. Winners have appeared on television shows internationally, including CBS' "This Morning," ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today," "Newton's Apple," "Ripley's Believe it or Not," the Fox News Network and CNN.

Purdue's national competition-winning teams from the past two years have been featured on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."