Sunday, February 25, 2007

Update on Emily and Rube Goldberg

As I wrote about earlier on her 22nd birthday, my oldest daughter Emily who is a mechanical engineering student has been involved in Rube Goldberg competitions for several years. The film crew from California did come in last week and filmed her and this Friday was the competition at the University of Toledo where she attends school. In years past her fraternity has not done as well as they would have liked not ending up in one of the higher spots due to various failures. While they did not win this year, they did better than they ever have since Emily was first involved taking second place for their machine called "A Clockwork Orange" that was supposed to crush an orange and end up with a pitcher pouring the juice into a glass.

The sad part was I saw the machine firsthand on Friday night do this perfectly - unfortunately it was not when the judges were scoring. When the judges came they ended up having to do two "human interventions" which ended up causing them to lose 20 points which gave them a 71 as opposed to the winning team from Washinging State Community College with 90 points...

But I'm proud of her and her team and in my book? They ROCK! or should I say they JUICE!

:-)

2 comments:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Tis the nature of Rube Goldberg machines to work perfectly when no one is watching and when it doesn't count, just as it is their nature to require intervention come judging time.

And, that's why they call them Rube Goldberg machines (among other things)...

TorAa said...

Two small interventions, and just when the judges are there. Bad luck, but no catastrophy. Best ever for the team, is best ever:)