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College Student's 'Art' Debut Bombs At Airport

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By RODRIQUE NGOWI, The Associated Press

Published: September 22, 2007

BOSTON - State troopers arrested an MIT student at gunpoint Friday after she walked into Logan International Airport wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweatshirt. Authorities call it a fake bomb; she called it art.

Star Simpson's attorney said the charges against her were an overreaction, but authorities expressed amazement that someone would wear such a device eight months after a similar scare in Boston, and six years after two of the jets hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks took off from Logan.

'I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport,' said Massachusetts State Police Maj. Scott Pare, airport commanding officer.

The terminal was not evacuated and flights were not affected, airport officials said.

Simpson, 19, of Hawaii, has expertise in electronics and even received a congressional citation for her work in robotics, her lawyer said.

She wore the white circuit board on her chest over a black hooded sweatshirt, Pare said. The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, and Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said.

Two phrases that looked hand-drawn - 'Socket to me' and 'Course VI' - were written on the back of Simpson's sweatshirt. Course VI appears to refer to MIT's major of electrical engineering and computer science.

'She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it,' Pare said.

She is charged with possessing a hoax device. She entered a not-guilty plea. She was released on $750 bail.

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