INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — In an international collaboration, five Purdue students in Indianapolis took their talents overseas to design and build a World Cup-themed pinball machine, a news release said Thursday.
For the two-semester capstone project, Hatem Abumadini, Mason Brown, Cody Cox, Ian Means and Devin Tolliver, Electrical Engineering Technology students from Purdue, designed and constructed a fully functioning pinball machine with two mechanical engineering students from the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Bocholt, Germany.
The team from Purdue tackled the electrical and software components of the machine, using an embedded Raspberry Pi system to control the machine's display and scoring, while the German students designed the pinball machine's frame and the 3D-printed components, including flippers, bumpers, slingshots, targets, and ramps.
The machine features a monitor and speakers to display video and sound based on gameplay, such as scoring a goal past the machine's automated goalie.
Following the completion of the project in April, some of the students, along with their faculty adviser, Polytechnic Professor Robert Weissbach, traveled to Bocholt, Germany, to present the machine to the German faculty adviser.
"This project and trip was a monumental effort for both the students and the faculty advisor," Weissbach said in the release. "The students pushed the limits of their abilities, working together as a team, to complete the design and construction of a full-size pinball machine within the two-semester time frame."
Weissbach shared plans to use the machine in future capstone projects, giving student cohorts the chance to rebuild and modify it.
