WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Engineering students at Purdue University recently broke the Guinness World Record for “Fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube.”

A team of undergrad students in Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering were able to solve a rubik’s cube in a blistering 0.103 seconds, using their high-speed robotic system known as “Purdubik’s Cube.” The new record time is nearly three times faster than the previous official record of 0.305 seconds, set by Mitsubishi Electric engineers in Japan in May 2024.

The group is made up of Alex Berta, Aden Hurd, Junpei Ota and Matthew Patrohay, who came together through Purdue’s Cooperative Education Program program. Even after clocking in a reaction faster than the blink of an eye, the four men say they’re not stopping there.

“We’re really trying to push under 100 milliseconds so we can say we’re even faster,” said team member Matthew Patrohay. “Realistically though, I think 103 milliseconds is going to be very hard to beat.”

Purdubik’s Cube was first unveiled at SPARK, Purdue ECE’s student design competition, where the team won first place in December 2024. It only took them one semester to build their robot, which they continued to work after the event in order to maximize it’s potential.

Milind Kulkarni, Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Professor of Purdue ECE, said it’s his students that make him proud and can show off the capabilities of Purdue ECE in an incredible way.

“Take brilliant students, give them the tools and opportunities, and they’ll blow your mind,” said Kulkarni. “I always say we have the best ECE students in the country — and this proves it.”