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"  Penn State    Penn State University senior Brianne Wilburne readies her team&amp;#039;s machine in preparation for another run. The team won the regional Penn State Rube Goldberg Competition held at Penn State in February.     With a Super Mario Brothers video game theme based on the Nintendo classic, students from Penn State University&amp;#039;s American Society of Mechanical Engineers used a Nerf gun rigged to a small motor as a part of their machine&amp;#039;s sequence. Teams were required to use 20 or more steps in their quest to complete the competition&amp;#039;s task: Replacing an incandescent light bulb with an LED bulb.  University of Texas    As the only one-member team in the competition, University of Texas student Tyler Luce used liquid nitrogen at the beginning of his Jurassic Park-themed machine. The nitrogen, which is used to deflate a balloon to trigger the fall of an egg, eventually is released through a small volcano.     To light the LED bulb that spotlights the Jurassic Park-themed machine&amp;#039;s sole T-rex, Luce triggered the machine&amp;#039;s motor with a small car that runs down a ramp, hitting the power switch in one of the final steps of the 51-step sequence.  Michigan Technological University    The judging of this year&amp;#039;s competition was out of 100 points: 40 points for the theme of the machine and the extent to which it embodies the spirit of Rube Goldberg&amp;#039;s cartoons, 60 points for the how smoothly the machine runs during the competition. Michigan Technological University students built their machine with a superhero theme.  Ferris State University    Students from third-place winner Ferris State University spent 2 to 3 hours a day, five days per week working on their Rube Goldberg machine for this year&amp;#039;s contest, titled &amp;quot;House of Rube.&amp;quot;     The sequence weaved throughout the three levels of the &amp;quot;house,&amp;quot; and focused on steps using gravity and relays that raised objects up and down.    Ferris State student Kyle Hebner said it was the three-dimensionality of the machine that made it special. &amp;quot;What we like to stress is encompassing all facets of engineering,&amp;quot; Hebner said of his team&amp;#039;s entry.  University of Illinois    Students from the University of Illinois based their second-place machine on the board game, Clue. It was the first time the university sent a team to the event.    To turn on the LED bulb, a metal ball rolls down a track and completes the circuit needed to start the microprocessor. The student-built microprocessor is programmed to switch out the light bulbs.  St. Olaf College    This year&amp;#039;s first place winner, St. Olaf College from Northfield, Minn., was the competition&amp;#039;s Cinderella story. Without an engineering program, a group of mostly science majors, many studying physics and math, built this mad-scientist-themed machine as part of an engineering class.     The St. Olaf team built a spinning turntable, which rotates a record with three holes. When lined up perfectly, these holes emit lasers beams that trigger a ball to come down the copper track, completing a circuit. As the machine&amp;#039;s sequence ends, metal balls filter through a Plinko board in the upper right-hand corner that triggers the tiny LED lights that spell &amp;quot;St. Olaf.&amp;quot;    RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: Top 8 Most Innovative Pinball Machines of All Time  * PLUS: Gonzo Machines From Rogue Inventor Buckminster Fuller  * BACKYARD GENIUS: PM Wants to Feature Your Homemade Invention!   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a4149/4311263/>