Students Build World Record Cube Solver That Finishes Before You Can Blink

West Lafayette, Indiana – A team of students from Purdue University has built the world’s fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube.

The system, called Purdubik’s Cube, solved a Rubik’s Cube in just 0.103 seconds.

The record was officially certified by Guinness World Records.

That time is faster than the blink of an eye, and nearly three times quicker than the previous record of 0.305 seconds set by Mitsubishi Electric in May 2024.

The Purdue team includes Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, Matthew Patrohay, and Alex Berta.

They built the robot using knowledge and experience gained through Purdue’s Cooperative Education Program.

Hurd said the co-op program helped them build friendships and technical skills needed for the project.

They also used money earned during co-op rotations to fund the project and secured corporate sponsorships.

Patrohay was inspired in high school by a video of a 380-millisecond cube solve. He set a goal to beat it—and now he has.

Purdubik’s Cube was first shown at Purdue ECE’s SPARK design competition in December 2024, where it won first place.

The robot uses machine vision, custom algorithms, and industrial-grade motion hardware for ultra-fast solving.

Every move is optimized for precise timing, making sub-millisecond control possible.

The project was co-sponsored by Purdue’s Institute for Control, Optimization and Networks.

Professor Shreyas Sundaram said the project continues Purdue’s legacy of engineering innovation.

The team also made the system interactive. A Bluetooth-enabled cube lets users scramble it in real time, and the robot mirrors and solves it instantly.

Patrohay said the project brought together everything they’ve learned in their time at Purdue.

The robot solves in 103 milliseconds—faster than a human blink, which takes about 200 to 300 milliseconds.

Assistant professor Nak-seung Patrick Hyun said the achievement pushes the boundaries of synthetic control systems.

Professor Milind Kulkarni praised the students for combining brilliance with opportunity to break a world record.

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