The Fay School
MIT/GE/EMC2
EMC2
Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
Reminders and Addendum to the Rules
(in no particular order)
1) Please be sure to read all emails from Chris Schoberl responding to questions about the rules.
There has been a great deal of traffic lately, and we would regret your team's not having the
benefit of this ongoing conversation.
NOTE: Chris Schoberl will be away from the office from March 20th-March 24th, so please email
all questions to Jean Zheng (zhengy@mit.edu) and Beryl Rosenthal (berylr@mit.edu), Cc’ing
Chris on all correspondence.
2) Be sure to thoroughly read through the Website in great detail:
http://web.mit.edu/museum/rubegoldbergcontest/2006/index.html, as well as to re-read the rules
so that your team is not disadvantaged by a point loss that could've been avoided (be certain, for
example, that you are meeting the "minimum number of steps" standard and that you can present
and run your machine in 15 minutes. These resulted in a disqualification and BIG point losses
last year.
3) As a part of your team’s presentation to the judges, you MUST provide a Rube Goldberg style
drawing, including letters identifying each step, and corresponding text beneath the drawing
indicating the sequence of steps towards completing the task. For samples, visit
www.rubegoldberg.com, and click on the Rube Goldberg Gallery. To keep the playing field
level, this will be done on poster board or tabletop display foam board from which your team
Captain will speak; PowerPoints/laptops are not permitted.
4) This year, we want to encourage all of you to take your machines back to your schools. Aside
from a great deal of stuff for us to clean up last year, there was the missed educational
opportunity for you and your School beyond the students directly involved in the competition.
Please remove all machine parts and discard/recycle associated refuse prior to leaving for the
day.
5) Team Captains are responsible for delivering to me, prior to judging, once the lunch horn
sounds, all tools, certifying that the kit is complete, and noting any malfunctioning or broken
tools.
6) Please double-check directions to Fay at www.fayschool.org.
7) As an additional resource on the day of competition, Fay students will be acting as your
ambassadors (each Fay student will host two Rube teams in this capacity). The Fay ambassador
is your “go to” person for anything you need during the competition, and will greet you in the
morning, introduce themselves, deliver your team to its spot, and be available throughout the
day.
8) Detailed Schedule for the Day
On 4/8:
9:15-10:00am, Arrival and Registration. Your team is required to show up at the registration site
between 9:15 and 10:00am. Late teams will lose two points from Team Performance and
Presentation to the Judges, Quality of Planning prior to Contest.
10:00-1:00pm, Building/Dry Runs (teams should schedule their own breaks, in the designated
break area, throughout the day according to need). Spectators will not be allowed on the gym
floor during the building phase. Spectators on the floor during this time may result in a team’s
disqualification.
1:00-1:45pm, ALL TEAMS EXIT COMPETITION VENUE FOR LUNCH. Last year, we had
some difficulty “encouraging” students to end the building phase. This year, we are asking for
the help of the team Captains and Coaches to move teams off the gym floor and to the Reinke
building for lunch, once time is called. TEAMS THAT CONTINUE TINKERING WITH
THEIR MACHINES FOLLOWING THE LUNCH HORN, MAY BE ASSESSED A HUMAN
INTERVENTON PENALTY.
2:00-4:00pm, Judging of Machines according to random judging order (look for information on
judging order, including clock time your team will be judged) in your registration packet on the
day of competition). ONLY THE TEAMS BEING JUDGED AND “ON DECK” TEAMS MAY
BE INSIDE THEIR AREAS. ALL OTHER TEAMS ARE REQUIRED TO EITHER WATCH
THE JUDGING OF THEIR OPPONENTS’ MACHINES OR RETREAT TO THE BREAK
AREA. TEAMS TINKERING WITH THEIR MACHINES AT THIS POINT OF THE DAY
MAY BE ASSESSED A HUMAN INTERVENTION PENALTY. THIS YEAR,
SPECTATORS WILL BE PERMITTED DOWN ON THE GYM FLOOR TO WATCH THE
JUDGING, but please encourage spectators, prior to the competition, to remain as quiet as
possible during the judging so that judges can work with these teams that have worked so hard
on their machines (the noise level, in the past, has been a problem). The 15 minute clock will
start as soon as the lead judge reaches your area, regardless of whether or not your team is ready,
so please do not wander, and do keep your eye on the clock.
4:00-4:30pm, Awards Presentation. As you know, Arthur Ganson will be our guest of honor
this year!
4:30-5:00pm, Teams to breakdown machines and take them back to their schools, discard refuse,
recycle what is reusable, and return any other tools to the designated area.
9) Competitors are not permitted to leave the building once registered. Leaving the building may
result in team member disqualification.
10) On the morning of the competition, bring all of your materials to Fay (whether you plan to
use it all, or not). We were sorry to see, last year, several teams that decided they needed
something… but realized that they had not planned on using it, so had left it home.
11) Bring back a completed W9 for your faculty stipend and receipts/log for any travel expenses.
On the day of competition, you will be asked to deliver a final registration form, indicating the
names of your team members so that we can present all students with participation certificates by
the day’s end. Finally, please complete a photo release for each of your students, and let me
know if there is a problem with using a photo of a particular student on our website and in
general promotions of the Contest and Fay School.
12) In all matters of judging, the Chief Judge has the final say. Please have team Captains
respectfully redress any grievance with the Chief Judge. In all matters of rules interpretation, the
Chairman of the Steering Committee has the final word. All disputes will be followed up in
writing, to the team Coach, by the Steering Committee following the competition.
13) The order in which teams will be judged, as well as the judging group assigned to particular
teams, is assigned at random, and you will receive information regarding these assignments on
the morning of the competition.
14) Eye protection is required, and all members of the team, including the team Coach, will be
provided with goggles. When you are in the team’s building area, you ARE REQUIRED TO
WEAR EYE PROTECTION (your own or that provided). TEAM MEMBERS NOT WEARING
EYE PROTECTION MAY BE DISQUALIFIED FROM COMPETING AND WILL BE
ASKED TO LEAVE THE GYM FLOOR.
15) It is the responsibility of the team Coach and the team Captain to monitor the behavior of
his/her team members. Students acting in ways that endanger themselves or others, adversely
impact the quality of the experience for any competitors, act in an unsportsmanlike manner, or
break any school rules (their own or Fay’s) run the risk of being disqualified from the
competition.
16) The exact page to be turned, according to the task for this year, will be given to your team on
the day of competition. For planning purposes, you are reminded that the actual page will be
selected from the middle 5% of the book's pages.
17) If the competition needs to be cancelled for any reason (act of God, power outage, etc.),
please reserve the next day, 4/9 as a probable reschedule date.
18) In addition to the tools listed, you will also be provided with a pair of Nitral gloves for use in
mixing epoxy, and six pairs of work gloves (sized for smaller hands).
19) No team may "hoard" the glue guns. A maximum of one glue gun is to be in the possession
of a team or its members at any one time. Hoarding glue guns may result in your team's
forfeiting the use of this tool.
20) HAVE FUN!