Students improve security,win Microsoft competition

A team of four JMU students won first place in a national Microsoft Windows ChallengE competition last weekend with the theme “Make the World a Safer Place.”

Computer science majors juniors Joshua Blake and Justin Creasy and sophomore Marcus O’Malley and computer information systems major junior Kevin Ferrell made up the winning team.

Computer science professor Ramon A. Mata-Toledo was the faculty adviser to the team.

The team competed against 29 teams from other universities from around the nation in Redmond, Wash. to win the $4,000 prize.

Students were to design a device that coincided with the competition theme of making the world safer.

The students designed a device to collect information from an airplane passenger’s boarding pass. The invention then uses a chemical sniffer to sense and identify potential high-security risks posed by baggage or passengers.

The invention would alert security staff if a passenger was on the government’s suspicious persons list or is carrying dangerous substances.

Since the device uses an adaptive algorithm, it becomes smarter over time and, thus, becomes more accurate.

Blake found out about the competition because he is the Microsoft student ambassador for JMU.

“Microsoft provided the equipment we used, which probably had a retail value of about $300, and we used our own computers for the project,” Ferrell said. “The trip to Redmond was funded by Microsoft as well.

“Mata-Toledo really helped with the fine-tuning of our presentation, especially when we got to Redmond. He was really interested in our idea and offered advice about writing software and creating the project,” Ferrell added.

The team had to dedicate its time to finish this project. “We’ve been working as a group since early November and met about once a week for a couple of hours,” Creasy said.

“When we settled on this idea, we knew it would be a huge task, but we were also confident that we could do it,” he added

The team members are confident that their device can help airport security.

“I think our project can really make a huge difference in airline security and in making people feel safer traveling,” O’Malley said. “Chemical threats on airplanes are becoming a very serious issue.

“Our system could really improve airline security and eventually spread to other industries,” he added. “It could be used at train stations, bus stations and any largely populated events — the possibilities are endless.”

While they won this year’s competition, the team mem-bers are looking forward to future competitions.

“We’re moving on to the international [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc] contest called [Computer Society International Design Competition] and we’re also entering in the Imagine Cup contest,” Creasy said.

JMU and 15 other teams from the Microsoft Windows ChallengE will go move on. JMU’s winning entry will compete again April 23, at the CSIDC Final Report Selection. Should they win, the JMU team will advance to the World Finals June 27 in Washington, D.C.

According to Blake, the group is working to improve the project for other competitions. “One of the criteria was for it to be a feasible idea, and now people are interested in putting it out there. We are looking into possibilities and trying to get it into production,” Blake said.

The Windows ChallengE is a competition designed to advance excellence in computer science and computer engineering education. Students work in groups to design prototypes that will enhance human safety.

The CSIDC works to emphasize teamwork in the design, implementation and testing of a computer-based technology system.