UMD Astronaut’s ‘Trip’ to Moon Wins Rube Goldberg Competition
Aerospace Engineering Students Score a Repeat in 14th Annual Alumni Cup
Saanchi Desai ’26 (in green hat) high-fives Elizabeth Ivanova ’28 (left) in the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building atrium after they and teammates from the Department of Aerospace Engineering won the 14th annual Alumni Cup competition.
Photos by Riley N. Sims
It wasn’t even four months ago that U.S. astronaut Jeanette Epps M.S. '94, Ph.D. '00 landed on Earth after 235 days aboard the International Space Station, and on Friday, a team of students in the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s aerospace engineering program turned around and launched her to the moon. Her mission: to deploy a souped-up “NASA speedster” lunar buggy.
At least, that’s the fictional narrative they created around one of their department’s most famous grads for their Rube Goldberg-type machine (topped with Epps’ smiling NASA portrait) en route to winning the 14th annual Alumni Cup. The competition sponsored by the Engineering Alumni Network calls for students from each of the school’s eight departments to create intentionally wacky, highly complex devices designed to ultimately do something silly.
This year, the assignment was to precisely propel a Matchbox-type car a predetermined distance—which teams tried to do for a panel of judges while hundreds of spectators loudly cheered their favorite teams from higher levels of the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building atrium.
“The Alumni Cup competition is a great way to remind students that they're part of something bigger than their time at school—an active, supportive alumni network that will be there throughout their lives,” said Emily Thomas ’20, Alumni Cup planning committee chair and a former competition winner with her partners from the Department of Fire Protection and Engineering. “I’ve enjoyed the Alumni Cup both as a student and as an alumni volunteer, because it’s an incredible opportunity to connect with not only those from your own major but also alumni and students from across the entire Clark School.”
Scroll down to see some of the high-energy engineering action.
Isabelle LaManna ’26 (center), captain of the team from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, applauds as its toy car rolls across the floor in the Kim Building atrium.
Civil engineering students Genevieve Sullivan ’25 (center, hat) and Mai Brosseau ’25 embrace after their team’s Rube Goldberg machine—which celebrates the discipline’s history and achievements—successfully launched the toy car.
From left, Opeyemi Salako ’25, Sam Heintz ’27 and Logan Bails ’27 celebrate while Jeremiah Fan ’26 (front) jumps for joy at the announcement the aerospace engineering team had triumphed in a second consecutive Alumni Cup.
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