The first time William McDavid, a first-year student from Centennial, Colorado, sat down to solve a Rubik’s Cube as a high schooler, it took him about four hours to complete.
Today, it takes him 30 seconds.
“It started out as a hobby, but eventually I kind of got bored with it,” McDavid said. “Then I saw online an artist that was doing these mosaics made from cubes and thought, ‘That's so cool — I wonder if I could do that?’”
Turns out, McDavid could, in fact, do that. For the Freshman Campus Leaders Association member, Husker track and field athlete and Kiewit Scholar, building Rubik’s Cube mosaics has become a therapeutic outlet that’s helped him focus on something outside of academics, athletics and campus involvements.
“I started with small things, like making letters and numbers. From there, I started to feel like I could go bigger," McDavid said.
As he’s upped his game, McDavid’s gone from simpler designs made of 300 cubes to building 600-cube portraits of real people. As the mosaics have also garnered more attention — with McDavid being featured on the local news in his Colorado hometown, and now in Lincoln — he’s become passionate about platforming athletes he admires.
“I like to make things that showcase people that are inspirational to me,” McDavid said, speaking of athletes like Simone Biles and even fellow Huskers that he’s made mosaics of. “I spend a lot of time practicing and competing in my sport, so it’s also just a fun way for me to escape and focus on something else.”
From designing the mosaics to building their custom 5’x5’ frames, this hobby clearly goes hand in hand with McDavid’s mind for engineering that the university's Kiewit Scholars program is helping nurture.
“The instant community in the engineering program and the resources it offers have been unbelievable,” McDavid said. “Things like going on site visits allow us to see firsthand what a future in engineering could look like for us.”
And although McDavid has had to hit pause on the mosaics as his track season and academic career have gotten under way, he still keeps Rubik’s Cubes close as he’s moving through the life of a student athlete.
“My Rubik's Cubes always come with me,” McDavid said. “It’s just a good way to pass some time.”
