LAFAYETTE, Ind. Burger-making goes to next level

A team of Purdue University students concocted a 156-step recipe to prepare a hamburger to win Saturday's annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.

This year's task was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between two bun halves.

The victory by the 17-member Purdue Society of Professional Engineers was the team's third such win in the past four years in the contest, named for the late cartoonist known for his drawings of complicated devices performing simple tasks.

After winning the regional contest in February, Purdue's team added 55 more steps to perfect its machine, said captain Drew Wischer.

"We put 4,000 to 5,000 man-hours into this machine since September," said Wischer, a senior in aviation technology from Cedarburg, Wis.

-- Associated Press