Illinois high school students are breaking out the dominoes and marbles for the 13th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The competition kicked off on February 22 in Chicago. Six teams were pitted against each other to see who could make a machine that would assemble a hamburger.

Rube Goldberg is known for his illustrations of complex machines composed of random items. And high school senior Nick Cox believes he’s got enough mouse traps and know-how to win this year’s contest. The challenge is to create a machine that can assemble a hamburger. Cox, a 4-year vet of the competition, says he’s hopefull that his team will take home the gold.

COX: It ran beautifully. Everything happened the way it was supposed to. The patty was perfect. It landed right on—even after flipping through the air and landing on the conveyor belt.

Cox says he’s optimistic his team will continue to the state championship in March. His mom says she hopes nothing else disappears from the house.

For Chicago Public Radio, I’m Hunter Clauss.