Pictured: Electrical Engineering students Paul Sayles (left) and Angelo Capili (right) in the Pinball Machine Project Laboratory.

Students are building a completely original pinball machine from scratch in a new multidisciplinary design course offered by the department, and it’s setting a precedent as the first of its kind in any university.

“Funds in support of this project have been provided by Lockheed Martin, under a college-wide program to encourage and facilitate advanced team project experiences for undergraduates, ” said William Destler, dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering. “The expansion of such project opportunities for undergraduates is a key strategic goal for the Clark School.”

Combining students from both electrical and mechanical engineering, this one-year project involves the conceptualization, design, and implementation of a “Pinball Redemption Machine.” A redemption-themed game allows players to win tickets, which they in turn can “redeem” to a vendor for prizes. The Chuck E. Cheese franchise specializes in this sort of game.

What’s unique about the course is that it is open-ended, meaning that although the students have to follow a rough set of guidelines, the final outcome is purely a product of their creation.

“In this type of project, you’re designing something and you don’t know exactly where it’s going to lead when you start,” said Professor David Stewart, faculty project leader for the pinball course. “Most university classes are closed - you know exactly what you’re going to design before you begin.”

In this case, students knew their product had to have flippers, a ball, give out tickets, and be fun to watch and play. They knew it should have the potential for profit, and that it should follow a design budget. Other than that, they were free to let their imaginations fly.

“Comet Commander” is the result. With an original play strategy, handicapped-accessible cabinet, built-in computer system linked to a digital signal processing chip, sensors, lights, actuators, sounds and original display, the machine is a feat in systems integration, electrical, mechanical, computer and marketing design.

The road to Comet Commander hasn’t been easy. First, students had to come up with original game concepts in teams. Then, they had to submit the concepts to an external review committee, whose members then decided which final design students would implement. Finally, they had to make it - not by any means the easiest part.

Students were divided into subsystem teams, including digital signal processing, controls, systems integration, playfield, novelty items, cabinet, and framework. Together, within one semester they brought Comet Commander to a working prototype, devoting as many as eight hours per day, every day of the week - to the project.

The challenges of implementing a project in teams, with different people bringing their respective areas of expertise, and within a budget and set timeframe, brought a real-world, industrial flavor to the course - along with real-world, industrial headaches.

Elizabeth Rosenfeld, one of the group’s two project managers, felt that the struggles were worth it. “Since we all anticipate technical challenges in any design project, it seemed that the more apparent demands on my time, as a systems integration engineer/project manager, came from the human aspect of the project and coordinating everyone’s efforts. It is always challenging for new groups of people to learn to work as a team towards a common goal, resolve conflicts, meet deadlines and simultaneously deal with the other demands of life.”

Student project members weren’t going at this alone. A seven-member external review committee, two external advisors, and three faculty advisors provided support, encouragement, and technical advice.

External review committee members came from NASA, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), the Naval Research Laboratory, and the U.S. Patent Office. They are all members of the Free State Pinball Association (FSPA), which coordinates pinball leagues in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia. Stewart is cofounder and vice president of the FSPA.

“I’m really impressed with all of the ungodly amount of work that’s gone into it,” said external review committee member Joe Schoeber, of America OnLine. “Anytime you have a real-time system like this, there are a lot of challenges. There is little margin for error.”

Scott Sidley, an embedded systems designer from SAIC, agreed. “I think the Pinball Redemption Machine Project whacked a little reality into the students who participated. The process of actually creating a product that could be sold in today’s entertainment market was modeled pretty well.”

Faculty advisors are Professors David Stewart (EE), Steven Tretter (EE), and Linda Schmidt (ME). External advisors are from Williams Electronics.

Students were treated to a guest lecture from Roger Sharpe, Director of Licensing from Williams Electronics, and “the one man who knows more about pinball machines than anybody else,” according to Stewart.

This semester, students took the project from concept to prototype. Next semester, they will carry it through to the final product.

For more information, including step-by-step progress reports, pictures and design detail, please see the group’s website at http://www.ee.umd.edu/courses/enee488q.

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