Aguascalientes, Ags., February 9, 2023.- The agreement that Panamericana has with MIT has left many very important experiences in the students of both institutions. Such practices vary between having more scientific knowledge, knowing the method of work and study in both countries and, among many other things, fostering relationships and friendships between students through constant socializing, in addition to working on new ideas between the two institutions. This time it was the creation of a Goldberg machine.
This agreement began in 2018 with different projects that have been carried out at our university, such as: Colibri Mission, the Beautiful Patterns camp, papers generated by the students themselves on logistics issues for important companies, among others.
Rube Goldberg Machine
In this part of the existing agreement, three female students were hosted during the winter. These young American girls helped students from different high schools to complete a workshop at our university: the creation of a Rube Goldberg Machine.
"The aim was to promote the topic of science and technology in basic education," says Mercedes Urzúa, Director of the School of Engineering. "In the last week of their stay with us, students Kira, Anna and Mercy helped us with students who are about to enter university. Since engineering is a very diverse field, we were looking for a project that would appeal to all the profiles we have. That' s why we asked them to make a Goldberg machine, as it is a way to test the ingenuity and creativity of future engineers.
This machine works with the use of chain reaction, in which something simple, such as a marble, causes endless movements and reactions in other more complex utensils.
Project Challenge
"The MIT girls were given the challenge with the idea of having several workstations, which in this case was five. Each one had to make a small part of the machine and the challenge was to make something cohesive. A sequence where many people, in an indirect way, work as a team to build a whole that works. That is why soft skills are also developed, such as negotiation, since, at the end of the day, everyone is working towards a common goal," Mercedes concludes.
The project was presented in the facilities of the universidad panamericana The project was presented in the facilities of the company and recognition was given to all the students who were part of this plan.
