[Cranston-based] Bay Computer Associates was founded in 1990 by friends Dave Durfee and Dave Frey after both were fired from their former jobs. Now BCA, a developer of software and hardware components in collaboration with other companies, has a staff of 15 and a bevy of projects.

"We've lost just one engineer in 10 years," said Frey.

"And that was just because he married a girl from Andover," said Durfee.

BCA has collaborated in the development of [many projects, including]...an ambulatory pump, dental probe, portable defibrillator and a "smart battery" to ensure proper battery maintenance in medical equipment.

Other projects include a motor cover that detects the temperature in motors used in mining, and shuts them down before they get too hot; emergency call phones for college campuses; and a computer program that controls the electronic beam that vaporizes the metal used in plate glass window production.

Durfee is also an adjunct professor at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island; he teaches a data communications course.