Julian Bertini, Ben Conklin, John Dale, Laila King, Aidan O’Neil
Faculty Sponsor: Hammurabi Mendes
Every moment a phone is on in a pocket and wifi is enabled, the phone is sending out small packets of information called probe requests that help the phone search for WiFi networks that it can connect to within range. Using special tools one can capture these packets. When capturing these packets each device leaves a digital fingerprint behind which can be used as a unique identifier. Our project idea is to disperse a number of micro devices on campus to capture unique Wifi probes of mobile phone and examine campus traffic flows through mapping requests. The goal of the project is to create a mongoDB/SQL database backend and web front end that can display human flow around campus to help us as a community better visualize the capabilities and the power of the technology in our pockets as well as raise awareness of digital privacy.