Ernő Rubik, the Father of the Rubik’s Cube: here’s his advice to today’s students

The world-famous inventor, Ernő Rubik, who once studied at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) visited the university and gave his advice to the students.

Ernő Rubik, a former student of BME and inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, visited BME to mark the opening of the International Competition for Young Physicists. The architect and computer designer, who celebrated his 80th birthday on 13 July, was photographed by several participants of the competition, signed lots of cubes, gave a few interviews and finally answered questions to bme.hu.

Ernő Rubik at BME

“Five years is a long time, a lot happens during such a period, and so many years having passed, you remember things in a positive way. Not what was a problem, if there was any, and not what was good, if there was any, but the whole thing,” he said when asked what memories he can recall from his university years. He added that when one is young, they think to have life ahead of them, find a connection with their peers and learn about something that can be called a profession. Then either stop there or decide to study something else.

“I went on, which wasn’t common practice at the time, but with my professor here, Frigyes Pogány, becoming the rector of the College of Arts and Crafts, I had the opportunity to take part in a kind of unconventional further education. So I was able to take a short course to learn another profession, interior design, which was seen as architecture at the time, but was different because of the way it dealt with interiors, the design of the objects, the attention to detail,” he recalled.