• The 2023 Rube Goldberg Machine will run at Charles Sturt Engineering in Bathurst at 3.30pm on Thursday 9 March
• The current intake of student engineers who built the machine is the eighth cohort to start the program

Commencing first-year student civil engineers at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst are hard at work on their first engineering task - to construct and run a giant Rube Goldberg Machine.

These are the machines that use a complex set of chain reactions, such as dominoes and marble runs, to perform a simple task.

The event starts at 3pm so participants are ready for the dynamic Rube Goldberg Machine to run at 3.30pm on Thursday 9 March at Charles Sturt Engineering (building 1305) in Bathurst.

Everyone is invited to attend to watch the machine in action, but don’t be late because once the machine is ‘started’ it’s all over in about 60 seconds.

Director of Engineering (Acting) Ms Shara Cameron (pictured with students) explained that commencing student engineers spend their first two weeks at Charles Sturt Engineering, working in teams to construct and operate the complex ‘machine’ known as a ‘Rube Goldberg Machine’.

“We provide our commencing student engineers with their first team-building and problem-solving ‘in at the deep end’ exercise, building a Rube Goldberg Machine,” Ms Cameron said.

“A Rube Goldberg Machine is based on the 1928 inventions in comics by inventor and engineer, Rube Goldberg, which feature numerous steps that interact and combine to perform a simple task.

“In Rube Goldberg’s comics, these simple tasks included fishing an olive out of a bottle, scratching your own back, and swatting a fly.”

Ms Cameron said each annual machine project is given a different theme which needs to be incorporated somehow. Last year the theme was the mathematical number ‘Pi’ (3.14159 plus 31 trillion digits).

“In 2023 the theme is ‘What is civil engineering?’, in celebration of 100 years since commencement of construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge,” Ms Cameron said.

“The final step in this year’s machine will be placing the centre piece in the Sydney Harbour Bridge model.

“This year the machine will consist of five mini machines that each demonstrate aspects of civil engineering, with each mini machine joined by a larger step that will set off the next.

“These mini-machines will be used throughout the year to demonstrate civil engineering and the work of Charles Sturt University Engineering’s students at open day and school events.”

The machine will start with setting off a run of dominos, as it always does, which will lead on to the new innovative steps the students create.

The 2023 intake of student engineers is the eighth cohort to start the program and includes 18 undergraduates (13 males and 3 females) and 2 postgraduate students.

The first students, who premiered the CSU Engineering Rube Goldberg Machine in 2016, graduated from the Bachelor of Technology/Masters of Engineering (Civil Systems) in 2021.

Charles Sturt cadet engineers are already working around NSW, mainly in regional areas, providing a boost to the engineering services available in these areas, as intended at the creation of the course.

The video of the 2022 Charles Sturt Engineering Rube Goldberg Machine is available to watch on YouTube.

The event will be staged at Charles Sturt Engineering (building 1305) on Village Drive at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst starting at 3pm for the running of the machine at 3.30pm on Thursday 9 March.