R E S O L U T I O N 1-1 WHEREAS, The University of Texas at Austin chapter of the 1-2 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) claimed top honors 1-3 in the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest in 2000, and this 1-4 feat indeed merits special praise; and 1-5 WHEREAS, Inspired by cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who is famous 1-6 for his sketches of elaborate contraptions that perform simple 1-7 tasks, this annual competition is sponsored by the Purdue 1-8 University chapter of the professional engineering fraternity Theta 1-9 Tau; students from colleges across the nation construct machines 1-10 that are designed to perform a simple task in as many steps as 1-11 possible, with the machines being judged on reliability, 1-12 creativity, complexity, and how well they embody the spirit of the 1-13 original cartoons; and 1-14 WHEREAS, To advance to the national competition, the ASME 1-15 team had to first win a local meet, which included besting its 1-16 arch-rival, UT's American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1-17 aerospace engineering organization; and 1-18 WHEREAS, The objective of the 2000 contest was to construct a 1-19 machine that could fill and seal a time capsule; the 10-member ASME 1-20 team spent more than 1,000 hours creating its machine, which used 1-21 47 steps, and at the national final in West Lafayette, Indiana, on 1-22 April 6, 2000, the invention proved to be second to none; and 1-23 WHEREAS, The talented engineers of the ASME team, all of whom 1-24 are Texans, include Chad Bruns, Jeff Krimmel, Neal Tanner, John 2-1 Franco, Nik Lane, Kirsten Cole, Justin Olsen, Danny Booth, Ed 2-2 Southerland, and Michael Bruns; now, therefore, be it 2-3 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 77th Texas 2-4 Legislature hereby congratulate all the members of the American 2-5 Society of Mechanical Engineers from The University of Texas at 2-6 Austin on their national victory at the Rube Goldberg Machine 2-7 Contest and extend to them sincere best wishes for continued 2-8 success; and, be it further 2-9 RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be 2-10 prepared for the ASME team as an expression of high regard by the 2-11 Texas House of Representatives. Dukes _______________________________ Speaker of the House I certify that H.R. No. 296 was adopted by the House on February 22, 2001, by a non-record vote. _______________________________ Chief Clerk of the House