February 1, 2010

Students at the University of Regina use such diverse elements as Tinker Toys, Meccano sets, billiard cues, tennis balls, balloons and plastic water bottles to pull off the projects.

Engineering

University of Regina students work with Rube Goldman machines

PETER KENTER

correspondent

Primary task: Execute an escape sequence with a jeep that ends when the vehicle is lifted by a helicopter.

Start Action:
• The escaping jeep initiates the system.
Sub-Goals:
• Have a tyrannosaurus eat a lawyer off a toilet.
• A Dilophosaurus spits in Nedry’s face.
• Launch Timmy from the electric fence.
• Release a car from a tree.
• Catch 3 Raptor eggs in a backpack.
• Restore the island’s power (minimum 3 lights).

What looks at first glance like script directions for the filming of dinosaur movie blockbuster Jurassic Park is actually a project assigned to first-year engineering students at the University of Regina.

Students are randomly assigned to teams of six to complete projects, which can be as diverse as abducting cows via spaceship, or launching a rabbit a distance of two metres, a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Their budget: 20 bucks a student.

The devices are known as Rube Goldberg machines, preposterously complex inventions designed to complete simple tasks, popularized by the 20th Century cartoonist of the same name.

“The students have to work in a team, design the device, select the parts, work to budget, and build something real — a project very much related to the actual world of engineering,” said engineering professor David deMontigny, who conducts the course with teaching partner Heidi Smithson.

“Even the fact that they might want to build a device along the Harry Potter theme, but get assigned to the Indiana Jones group, mirrors real life.”

Students use such diverse elements as Tinker Toys, Meccano sets, billiard cues, tennis balls, balloons and plastic water bottles to pull off the projects.

Each assignment must complete a primary task using a prescribed starting action that results in the completion of six sub-goals.

Presentations are marked on such criteria as achieving the machine objectives, design, budget, total running time and the number of trials required to get the device to work.

“If it takes them 100 tries to perfect the machine, rather than 20, it’s an indication of how good the original designs is,” said deMontigny.

At the end of the semester, the teams give a class demonstration, either by bringing the machine in for a live run, or through a video presentation.

Most students go the video presentation route, often embellishing the productions with appropriate theme music.

Teaching assistant Connor Wright originally developed the idea.

It was first implemented in the winter semester of 2009.

“Now that we’ve run the course twice we’re making some adjustments to the design parameters,” said deMontigny.

“The original assignment asked the students to create a machine that completed the primary task in three minutes. That resulted in a lot of students using time-wasting devices, such as water or sand filling up a bottle and that made the machines more boring to watch.

“We’ve reduced the running time to 90 seconds with no individual step lasting more than 15 seconds.”

Students generally wind up being quite proud of their Rube Goldberg devices, and say they appreciate the sense of real-world accomplishment.

But they usually have one question: Who’s Rube Goldberg?

“When I asked a class of 200 whether they knew what a Rube Goldberg machine is, probably no more than six hands went up, and most of them only knew the name from building similar devices in high school science classes,” said deMontigny.

“Then again, most of the students assigned to a Ghostbusters-themed device didn’t know who the Ghostbusters were because it was too retro for them.

“They had to rent a DVD so they could understand the points of reference. We may look at adding an assignment themed to the Transformers next semester.”

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