Rodrigues, a computer science major from Michigan, and Hennessey, an electrical engineering major from Missouri, say they wanted a unique room. The concept just mushroomed. The waterfall, in one corner of the room, runs on a pump that circulates water through plastic ivy and flowers hanging down the sides. They constructed the ball pit, about the size of four playpens put together, from plastic pipes. Thick plastic sheeting forms the walls.
Access is via a wooden ladder on one side.
The structure is actually quite sturdy, having survived a party with only a few rips, they say. The room no longer has any beds, only a makeshift loft Hennessey sleeps in when he's not sleeping at the computer lab, which isn't often. Rodrigues says he either curls up on the floor or hops into the pit. It's extremely comfortable. You are sort of suspended in the air when you sleep in the ball pit.