The Cubeinator is one of about 280 entries in the annual Aurora Energy Otago Science and Technology Fair now on show at Dunedin’s Otago Museum.
Created by Taieri College year 8 pupil Matthew Petegem-Thach, the machine may be better at solving a Rubik’s cube than many humans.
Otago Museum’s Colin Smillie was among the judges for the exhibition, open to pupils from year 7 to year 13 across the region.
It was an "amazing" entry regardless of the age of the pupil, but the fact he was so young made it incredible, Mr Smillie said.
Another entry that stood out was The #1 Duck, an investigation into the adhesion and strength of various types of duct tape.
"You can learn something immediately just by looking at the graphs, and it’s effective because you know that you can use something that is not as expensive, and is actually better.
Other entries ranged from a project that found blue eyes to have the best peripheral vision, to one that found L&P the most effective fluid to create a false positive on a rapid antigen test.
Judging was difficult because there were so many impressive entries.
"We’d like to give an award to everybody who exhibited here — it is very difficult to choose from," Mr Smillie said.
However he looked for hands-on, interactive types of experiments, as this was a focus of the museum’s science centre.
"Different judges used different criteria depending on where they were from.
"There was just one other judge from the museum but there were several different organisations handing out prizes."
The exhibition will run until Sunday, when an award ceremony will be held for the young scientists.
