April 2, 2007 1:40 PM PDT
Purdue students (from left) Zach Umperovitch, a freshman aeronautical engineering major; Kyle Keppner, a freshman civil engineering major; and Drew Wischer, a senior aviation flight technology major, celebrate a successful run of their machine at the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
The competition was held on Purdue's campus. Their team, the Society of Professional Engineers, placed second with a machine that used 155 steps to carry out the assigned task. The machine included a secret agent who broke into a casino, drove a miniature Lotus and then took off on a parachute to help the orange reach its destination. It took about 3,000 hours to build.
Photo by Purdue News Service/David Umberger
