Students raise $17K to create device to help solve hot car deaths

ATLANTA - Drew Charter School engineering students won a grant, but need money to present their invention at MIT.

The East Lake students created a three-tier alert devise to reduce child and animal hot car deaths in the United States. They said their invention differs from many others in several ways.

"We have a weight sensor, an ignition sensor, an infrared sensor, and a temperature sensor," senior Naomi Ray explained.

"If a child or pet is detected and the ignition is off, and the weight sensor doesn't pick up any weight in the front seat...which tells us there is no adult in the car, that will indicate it is a dangerous situation," Ray said.

"This is something that nobody else has done before. We are creating something that is brand new," aspiring engineer Jurnee Miller exclaimed.

The students submitted their initial application in April of 2016. To many of the 15 students’ surprise, they were awarded a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT grant in October.

"I just think it is an absolutely incredible opportunity for our students. We are so excited to be the only team selected in all of Georgia and we are one of 15 teams selected nationally," engineering teacher Beth White beamed with pride.

"It was an incredibly challenging process for them.  The amount of research that went into this was college level at a minimum," White said.

The students face one more hurdle with the project, they have raised just over $9,000.00, but need $23,000 to fly to Boston and present the invention at Eureka Fest 2017 in June.

Anyone who would like to donate to their goal can do so through GoFundMe.

The engineering students from Drew Charter School tweeted to FOX 5 News stating that they reached over $16,000 in donations on their GoFundMe page.