Professorship and origin of the Rubik's Cube From 1971 to 1979, Rubik was a professor of architecture at the
Budapest College of Applied Arts (
Iparművészeti Főiskola). It was during his time there that he built designs for a three-dimensional puzzle and completed the first working prototype of the
Rubik's Cube in 1974, applying for a patent on the puzzle in 1975. In an interview with
CNN, Rubik stated that he was "searching to find a good task for my students." Starting with blocks of wood and rubber bands, Rubik set out to create a structure that would allow the individual pieces to move without the whole structure falling apart. Rubik originally used wood for the block because of the convenience of a workshop at the university and because he viewed wood as a simple material to work with that did not require sophisticated machinery. Rubik made the original prototypes of his cube by hand, cutting the wood, boring the holes and using elastic bands to hold the contraption together. Rubik licensed the Magic Cube to
Ideal Toys, a U.S. company, in 1979. Ideal rebranded The Magic Cube to the Rubik's Cube before it was introduced to an international audience in 1980. The process from early prototype to mass production of the Cube had taken over six years.
Other inventions In addition to Rubik's Cube, Rubik is also the inventor of
Rubik's Magic,
Rubik's Snake and
Rubik's 360 along with several others.
Later career and other works In the early 1980s, he became the editor of a game and puzzle journal called
..És játék (
...And games), then became self-employed in 1983, founding the Rubik Stúdió, where he designed furniture and games. In 1987, he became a professor with full tenure; in 1990, he became the president of the Hungarian Engineering Academy (
Magyar Mérnöki Akadémia). At the academy, he created the International Rubik Foundation to support especially talented young engineers and industrial designers. He attended the 2007 World Speedcubing Championship in Budapest. He also gave a lecture and autograph session at the "Bridges-Pecs" conference ("Bridges between Mathematics and the Arts") in July 2010. In 2009, he was appointed as an honorary professor of
Keimyung University in
Daegu, South Korea. In the 2010s, Rubik has recently spent much of his time working on ''Beyond Rubik's Cube'', a Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (
STEM fields) based exhibition, which would travel the globe over the next six years. The grand opening of the exhibit was held on 26 April 2014 at the
Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. At the exhibition, Rubik gave several lectures, tours, and engaged with the public and several members of the
speedcubing crowd in attendance, including
Anthony Michael Brooks, a world-class speedcuber. Rubik is a member of the
USA Science and Engineering Festival's advisory board. In December 2024, Rubik was interviewed by the educational math channel
Numberphile. ==Influences==