7 Quotes by Shawn Jordan

I feel like, if the crowd doesn't like it, then we haven't done our jobs. We always try to create a story and make a personal connection with the audience. We really try to make it fun and interactive.

That was quite a setback, but the team as a whole came back and put the time in that was necessary in January and February and here we are today.

This year has been different. The building that we've been using for a while collapsed in November, right in the middle of our season. We also had a real young team that really stepped up to the challenge.

This is the eighth year I've been involved in the Rube Goldberg contest, and the competition is played at a much higher level than when I began. The machines are better designed and use many more steps. I am just amazed at how the quality of the machines has increased.

It's a great feeling because we had a lot of challenges this year. The building where we usually work on our Rube Goldberg machine collapsed, so we lost about six weeks of production. We spent a total of about 4,000 hours building our machine.

In one part of our machine, we used 100 steps just to play the Purdue fight song because we basically created a fully working mechanical player piano. To win the competition is great, but it means so much also to win the People's Choice award because that means we entertained people, too.

Honestly, we do it because it's fun. Beyond that, it's also the prestige and getting the public excited about science and technology.