* A complex, dynamic, practical exercise for new CSU student engineers * Annual demonstration of team-building and problem-solving * Also celebrates the mathematical constant 3.14 on ‘Pi Day’It’s time again for the dominoes to fall for the launch of the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Day at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Thursday 14 March.Foundation Professor of Engineering Euan Lindsay (pictured) explained that this is the annual demonstration of the first team-building and problem-solving exercise for new first-year student engineers at CSU Engineering.“In at the deep end, building a Rube Goldberg Machine sets a complex, dynamic and practical exercise for our new student engineers,” Professor Lindsay said.“The ‘machine’ features numerous elements or steps that interact and combine as it snakes through the engineering building to complete a single task.“This year’s machine will need to incorporate a pig (it’s the Chinese ‘Year of the Pig’) and recycled items from previous years’ machines. The final step (ultimate goal) of the machine is for it to open a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-sponsored report to be read.”In 2018, the MIT-sponsored report named CSU Engineering as one of the top four emerging engineering schools in the world.This year the special guest who will push the first domino to set the ‘machine’ in motion is Professor Bill Oakes, the Co-Director of the EPICS Program and a member of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University in the state of Indiana, USA.Professor Oakes’s presence and involvement is also significant because it was Purdue University that in 1987 initiated in the US the first annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.Professor Lindsay said Thursday 14 March is also ‘Pi Day’, which celebrates the mathematical constant 3.14 (3/14 in the month/day calendar format).“We chose this later time of 4pm this year to encourage more school children to come along to experience the buzz of the machine activation and inspire the next generation of engineers to change the world,” Professor Lindsay said.“Our student engineers will also be selling sausage sandwiches on the day to help raise money for our regional engineering scholarship program.“Come along and be dazzled by this year’s Rube Goldberg Machine, and support our student engineers and the engineering scholarship program.”The annual Rube Goldberg Machine Day is at CSU Engineering (building 1305, Village Drive) at CSU in Bathurst, with the machine activated after 4pm on Thursday 14 March.