Notes

Purdue Inside Minecraft



Purdue inside Minecraft


07-20-2021




Anyone who is a Boilermaker alumni could claim that Purdue's campus is characterized by its stunning brick buildings iconic fountains, the bell tower. Now an Purdue student is creating his own version of Purdue's campus for the gaming generation in the world of Minecraft and Minecraft, making this the no. 10 on the list of Top Public Universities in the U.S.



Purdue Computer Science senior, Esteban Vicente-Paulino Richey has created Purdue's campus as part of the popular video game Minecraft. Richey began his dream project in the year 2019 and finished it 300 hours later, with 3 million blocks being built. Richey now has 52 percent of the campus constructed within Minecraft. He has finished many campus buildings north of State Street alongside Andrew Klotz who contributed to the construction of 30 percent of the project. The finished buildings include the Wilmeth Active Learning Center as well as the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall, Elliott Hall of Music and campus residence halls, Ross-Ade Stadium and even Purdue Mall, complete with the Class of 1939 Water Sculpture.



Minecraft was first released to the public in 2011. Minecraft is a "sandbox" game, meaning there aren't any goals or objectives. This allows players to be free of restrictions. The world of Minecraft is made up of different blocks, or cubes, of material which the player can arrange and move them around to create scenes and structures. With more than 200 million copies sold and 126 million monthly active players as of 2020, Minecraft is known as the top-selling video game of all time.



Richey's fascination with Minecraft began when he in middle school in Carmel, Indiana, and the game was released for the first time. His family owned the computer that wasn't able to play the game at the time, but he could see other players playing on YouTube. In 2013, the family got a new computer that was able to play Minecraft and he's been playing since then.



"I feel like Minecraft is now a generational kind of game that people around the college age have played or were a part of growing up playing this game. It's a game that a majority of people can participate in easily, be creative and collaborate with others," Richey says.



In the autumn of 2018, Richey started at Purdue as a freshman in the computer science program. He knew he wanted to pursue computer science at Purdue because he loved taking an advanced computer science class at his high school.



"I had never really visited Purdue prior to my first semester. However, in the fall, when I was getting comfortable with the campus and my classes, I quickly fell in love with it," he says. He was a member of the Launch Campus Ministry as a freshman and spent time in the Waldron Street clubhouse. That is when he got the idea to build the house in Minecraft.



"Because that was the first building I ever spent long hours in, I constructed it with great attention to detail in Minecraft. It was a hit with all my friends. So, when I finished this, I thought, why not make the front yard and the backyard and then the buildings across the street? That's when I just continued to build and expand to what I've built today," Richey says. "I also used a lot of ideas from Purdue's virtual tour maps and topographical maps to help me build and create the campus within the game to be easily identifiable as an entire."



Building campus is not easy. Purdue continues its growth. It's difficult to keep pace with all the changes occurring on campus. Richey smiles and suggests that Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University, could inform him when new buildings will be constructed or renovated.



Richey who is who is a rising senior, plans to make his big leap as a computer science student in May. He will also remain at RSA Security, where he is currently interning. He also plans to to build Purdue University in Minecraft.



"I love the way campus is designed, and I am awed by the people on campus as well as the fact that I have so many memories in all the buildings I've built on here. It's great enjoyable and makes me eager to keep building. Richey said that even though I thought I might need to stop when graduation, it's possible that I'll continue building West Lafayette.



If you play Minecraft, you can download the Purdue map file below to play. https://github.com/estebanrichey/PurdueInMinecraft/




About Purdue University's Department of Computer Science




Established in 1962, the Department of Computer Science was created to serve as an innovative foundation of knowledge in the burgeoning field of computing as the first degree-awarding program in the United States. Through research the department is working to improve the computer science industry. Stevelarese.com US News & Reports ranks Purdue CS #20 and #18 overall in undergraduate and graduate programs, respectively. The program ranks ninth in cybersecurity and software engineering, 14th in programming languages, 13th in computing systems and 24th in artificial intelligence. The graduates of the program are able solve difficult and complex issues in a variety of fields. The record number of undergraduates enrolled, increased faculty recruitment and innovative research projects as well as the creation of new academic programs are all proof of our ongoing success in a constantly evolving landscape. The increasing centrality of computer science within the academic discipline and in society and the new research initiatives focused on data science, artificial intelligence, programming languages as well as theoretical computer science machine learning, cybersecurity will be the focus of the department.


Read More: https://stevelarese.com/