Animated arduino powered graduation caps are pretty common, but perhaps not in Florida. When one recent Florida grad placed such a device on his mortar board, the police incited a (minor) bomb scare, confiscated the cap mounted display, and the bomb squad destroyed it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/student-causes-bomb-scare-at-graduation-with-decorative-ensemble/ar-AAFchE5
Can Cevik, a computer engineering graduate, said he was just trying to be festive earlier this week when he taped a battery-powered digital device to his graduation cap, displaying the message "FIU 2019." ... "Just to clear things up, my cap had an Arduino Uno with a 7-segment display on it and was powered by a 9V battery; it was not an explosive," he said. ... They eventually cleared him to enter the venue, but only after providing him with a new -- plain -- graduation cap. ... Police then called the bomb squad and destroyed the original cap. ... FIU Police Captain Delrish Moss told local reporters that officers acted out of an abundance of caution.
"While that seems very innocent and looks very innocent, it also has the potential to scare people," Moss told local Fox affiliate WSVN. "A police officer spotted it and took the necessary precautions."
This article has a picture of the cap (which appears to be a pretty low effort affair). https://www.waaytv.com/content/national/513449462.html
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Friday August 02 2019, @06:11PM (2 children)
FIU, aside from crushing the creative spirit, is the same university where a focus on aesthetics for a pedestrian bridge connecting student housing to campus, actually crushed people to bloody pulps.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @07:05PM
It's Florida. The same place where a Florida Toyota dealership is selling a $58,361 Toyota Supra for $200,000.00... $150k over MSRP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:08AM
It's challenging to hire FIU graduates after all this - they need to think ahead to how their choices affects the graduates - FIU Police for the loss!