![\"Omar](\"\/eng\/files\/2017\/05\/h_butoday_995px_664px_ECE_Day_2017_0413-2.jpg\")
R<\/span>aindrops slap the hood of red Ford Taurus idling under an open-ended tent on Cummington Mall behind the Photonics Center. In the driver\u2019s seat, Omar Janoudi is jacked into the car\u2019s onboard data systems through its diagnostic port. Numbers on his laptop screen represent data packets passing through the car\u2019s electronics, ripe for exploitation by hackers. With a few quick keystrokes he turns the headlights on and off. Locks and unlocks the doors. Even stops and starts the engine.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could even crash it,\u201d says Janoudi (ENG\u201917). Physically? \u201cNo, no, that would be bad. Crash the car\u2019s systems.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a test of AutoPen, the all-in-one car-hacking software toolkit that Janoudi and the rest of the College of Engineering electrical and computer engineering majors in Team 2\u2014Petar Ojdrovic (ENG\u201917), Dennis Your (ENG\u201917), Jeraldin Guerrero (ENG\u201917), and Wasim Khan (ENG\u201917)\u2014have built for their senior capstone project. The open-source software package is intended to make life easier for auto security experts trying to rid cars of vulnerabilities common to systems with unencrypted data and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.<\/p>\n The team project is one of 25 that the more than 100 students in the\u00a0ECE Senior Design<\/a>\u00a0capstone course tackled this year, solving problems for volunteer clients from industry, government, nonprofits, faculty, and staff. The projects range from an \u201copen-source cytometry platform\u201d for counting and measuring cells used in diagnosing diseases to a smart pet food dispenser. The undergrads are called on to demonstrate both technical abilities and teamwork skills in satisfying the client\u2019s project specifications over the course of the year.<\/p>\n At the end of each year, on Electrical and Computer Engineering Day, each team first presents its work to a roomful of students and faculty. Then, in the afternoon, it\u2019s demonstration time, at tables around the Photonics Center\u2019s ninth-floor rotunda, and the teams must show how their projects work. Their efforts are judged by a panel of ECE alumni from companies that include Google, Microsoft, and National Grid, who bestow awards in several categories.<\/p>\n Overheard: \u201cIt\u2019s a long day, especially for the ones who were up all night finishing.\u201d<\/p>\n The competition is based on a model that is almost universal in industry in the design of products in electrical and computer engineering, says\u00a0Alan Pisano<\/a>, an ENG associate professor of the practice and the capstone course lead professor since 2010. \u201cOur students are exposed to this design methodology so that they get practice for when they enter the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n Because Team 2\u2019s demonstration requires a car, it\u2019s done in a tent outside rather than the center\u2019s rotunda. That\u2019s fine, says Your, despite the pouring rain outside the tent. What matters is that the product works.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s increasingly digitized vehicles are increasingly vulnerable to hacking. \u201cThat\u2019s a problem,\u201d says Guerrero. \u201cI can take my computer and make your windshield wipers go and make your steering wheel move and make your lights flash. That in itself is going to install a fear factor, so people can understand why our tool is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n Team 2 clients are Jonathan Petit,\u00a0OnBoard Security<\/a>\u00a0senior director of research, and\u00a0David Starobinski<\/a>, an ENG professor of electrical and computer engineering. The students borrowed the car from the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, where Starobinski is a faculty fellow.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, upstairs, Team 6\u2014Davy Huang (ENG\u201917), Jingning Zhang (ENG\u201917), Kathleen Lewis (ENG\u201917), and Victor Weiss (ENG\u201917)\u2014are introducing people to DORI, or Door Opening Robotic Intelligence. Their clients are Osama Alshaykh, an ENG assistant research professor and ECE lecturer, and the\u00a0William E. Carter School<\/a>, a Boston public school for students ages 12 to 22 with severe disabilities and complex health needs.<\/p>\n This ENG student group hopes to increase independence for people using wheelchairs by designing a device that would open doors in the buildings where a person spends a good bit of time, such as a school. They relied on the input of one Carter student with multiple impairments who maneuvers the school hallways in a wheelchair with one hand. \u201cThis project is designed to just give him a little bit of assistance,\u201d says Mark O\u2019Connor, Carter School principal. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to open a door toward you, keep it open, and get a wheelchair through\u2014with one hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Each door would be marked with a machine-readable QR code identifying its characteristics, such as whether it has a handle that needs squeezing or turning. A Microsoft Kinect input device, originally built for Xbox, reads the code and passes the information to a laptop computer. The computer controls a robotic hand that grasps the handle and opens the door, and then one of the dowels pushes or pulls it wide enough for the chair to pass. The equipment is attached to a $1,400 wheelchair donated by Alshaykh, the same model used by the Carter School student.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to bring it over there and get feedback,\u201d Lewis says. A \u201cDORI2\u201d team will take the project forward next year, adding features like keycard swipes and the ability to press elevator buttons.<\/p>\n \u201cThere aren\u2019t many of these accessibility products built and when they are, they\u2019re incredibly expensive because it\u2019s such a small market,\u201d says O\u2019Connor. \u201cHaving BU students gain this exposure, this experience\u2014you never know where that\u2019s going to lead when they get out in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"ECE](\"\/eng\/files\/2017\/05\/h_butoday_995px_664px_ECE_Day_2017_0031.jpg\")
![\"Student](\"\/eng\/files\/2017\/05\/h_butoday_995px_664px_ECE_Day_2017_0164.jpg\")