The task of the machine at this year’s competition was to squeeze hand sanitizer from a bottle into a hand. There were 12 universities in attendance, along with 13 high schools that competed in a separate competition.
The Ferris team traveled to Japan in January to create a machine and attempt to re-break the world record. Kyle Hebner, a Ferris senior and Rube Goldberg team member, said that between the Japan trip and school, it was an accomplishment to even get a machine together for the national competition.
“Between traveling to Japan and building a machine over there and working on our respective senior design projects, it’s a wonder we made it down there at all,” said Hebner.
Hebner said that there were some very impressive machines at the competition. He said a few of the judges felt overwhelmed with the number of machines they had to look over.
“We all agreed before the competition that no matter what happened, we were going to have fun. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to be hauled up in a lab for hours on end with,” said Hebner. “I think the competition went well, I had a lot of fun.” n