Children look at a robot dance during the inaugural Rube Goldberg Contest and S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) celebration at the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday, November 9, 2013. A Rube Goldberg contraption  is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg (1883–1970).