Imagine a 4x8 bank of these a la Midi Fighter Twister, but with parameter displays…
Engineer here, no degree required to build something like that 
as long as you’re decently handy and can get through some soldering tutorials…
I am decently handy and can solder, but they’d all need to be connected to some main board that has USB connectivity, then the software to wrangle it into something usable, no?
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That’s what Arduinos are for, $15 will get you a board compatible with a bunch of encoders and SDA/SCL protocol compatibility (to hook up a parameter display). There are plenty of scripts and guides on how to set up MIDI compatibility with an Arduino’s USB port, too.