MIT computer whiz arrested with fake bomb at Logan airport

[AlethiaSi]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=201808203

By Paul McDougallInformationWeek
September 21, 2007 12:50 PM


A woman arrested Friday for carrying a fake bomb into Boston's Logan airport is an MIT computer whiz who loves "crazy ideas" and "saving the planet from evil villains," according to her blog on a Web site hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In her blog, MIT student Star Simpson says she is "currently studying computers and how they work." Simpson also participates in MIT's MITER project, a student run electronics engineering workshop.
Cops arrested Simpson, 19, on Friday after she reportedly walked into Logan International Airport with a fake bomb made of lights, wires, and putty strapped to her chest. She was charged with disturbing the peace and perpetrating a hoax.
An MIT spokeswoman on Friday confirmed that Simpson is currently enrolled in the school's famed computer science program. The spokeswoman could not say whether the school is contemplating any disciplinary action against Simpson. "It's too early to say," she said. The spokeswoman said MIT is planning to release a formal statement on the matter.
Simpson's blog indicates she previously lived in Hawaii. It reveals a personality that could be described as quirky. She writes that she previously spent time "traveling the world and saving the planet from evil villains with my delivered-just-in-time gadgets." Two of the flights that were hijacked as part of the September 11 terror attacks originated at Logan. As a result, Boston city officials have little tolerance for terror-related hoaxes. Earlier this year, two men were arrested for planting bomb-like devices around Boston in an effort to drum up publicity for the cable show Aqua Teen Hunger Force.