AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Rubik's Cube - you know, that multicolored cube that's scrambled our brains for decades? Well, that has been unscrambled in a new record time. A team of undergraduate students at Purdue University can solve it faster than you can blink - literally - that is, with some help from their new robot. Matthew Patrohay joins us now. He's the team lead on this student project, the Purdubik's Cube - get it? - and today is his graduation day. Happy graduation, Matthew, and congratulations.
MATTHEW PATROHAY: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It is my graduation day, which is pretty fun.
CHANG: (Laughter) Well, you know, I grew up in the 1980s, well before you were even born. And my brother - he got a Rubik's Cube for Christmas one year, and I remember how much it frustrated me. Like, I could never solve it. I still can't solve it. I don't even try anymore because the hopelessness of it just overwhelms me. So I'm curious, like, what is your origin story with the Rubik's Cube? Why did you become fascinated with this project?
PATROHAY: I have a similar story. Back in - all the way in fourth grade was when I first kind of was introduced to the Rubik's Cube. And there was a competition, and you get a prize if you could solve it, and I could never solve it. And I wanted to win the prize, so a few friends and I tried to learn how to solve it, and that's kind of how I started with the Rubik's Cube. And then in high school, I saw someone built a robot that can solve it in what used to be the world record - a team of engineers at MIT. And I thought, hey, someday, I should try and beat that, and here I am.
CHANG: I mean, it's pretty amazing. I watched the video of your robot solving the Rubik's Cube. So let me just describe it for people. You have this machine, and it's holding on to the cube like a human would, with its two hands. And the cube - it starts out all scrambled up, but then you just push some button on this robot, and it's like - shloop (ph) - the entire cube, like, snaps into perfection. It is literally faster than a human being can blink. It's, like, a little more than a tenth of a second that this robot can solve the cube, right? Does it just blow your mind, even as you watch it today?
PATROHAY: Oh, absolutely. It's hard to comprehend.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: I barely, like, register that the cube is solved when I'm watching the video 'cause it happens so instantaneously.
PATROHAY: Yes, yes. And it's loud as well, by the way, in person. Like, sometimes, if you, like, press the button before you, like, were planning it, it's very - it's sudden.
CHANG: Yeah. There's a lot of force provided by the robot, which I understand is why you had to reinforce the Rubik's Cube so it wouldn't, like...
PATROHAY: Yeah, yeah.
CHANG: ...Blow up or explode into different pieces (laughter). What were some other obstacles you had to overcome to get this robot to solve the cube so quickly - record time?
PATROHAY: One issue that we had is that these turns are happening so quickly that it's hard to align them. So a lot of times, it'll overshoot or undershoot. So you have to really carefully tune the motion to perfectly align it.
CHANG: Yeah.
PATROHAY: And then once the turn is complete, we want to start the next turn as soon as possible. And if anything, we actually start the motion of the next turn ever so slightly before the previous motion was complete, and tuning that timing took a lot of optimization.
CHANG: Oh, my God, because yeah, if you think about it, all the rows and columns on the cube have to be aligned, you would think, for it to...
PATROHAY: Exactly.
CHANG: ...Spin around in multiple directions. So cool - OK, well, obviously, it is graduation day today. What future puzzles await you personally? Like, what's next, besides trash-talking MIT and telling them that you've now beat them?
PATROHAY: Oh, absolutely...
CHANG: (Laughter).
PATROHAY: ...I love trash-talk MIT as a Purdue University student, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I have a job lined up after I graduate here. And then we're also going to go - my girlfriend and I - on a little trip out to Europe, which will be really fun as well, so...
CHANG: That sounds like a beautiful plan. Matthew Patrohay - by day's end, he will be a graduate of Purdue University. Congratulations, and good luck to you.
PATROHAY: Thank you. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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