One of Alan Turing’s key contributions to computer science is the concept behind his Turing machine, “a hypothetical device representing a computing machine” (according to Wikipedia).
Jeroen van den Bos & Davy Landman of CWI in the Netherlands write:
Abstract models are just that, an abstraction of something. In order to really show how simple the fundamental model of a computer is, we have developed a physical implementation of the Turing machine, using LEGO Mindstorms NXT.
Here’s a videos of the machine in action:
LEGO Turing Machine from ecalpemos on Vimeo.
Read more about the LEGO Turing machine on the team’s website.