When young Lydia Denton learned that children were dying in hot car deaths due to being accidentally left behind, she decided to do something about it.
2 years later, the now 12-year-old girl who lives in North Carolina won a $20K prize for her invention-a car seat device which measures the car’s temperature and informs the parents and officials when the temperature inside reaches 102 degrees.
Girl Invents an Alarm to Lower Hot Car Deaths
The young Lydia explains how she got so emotional because this is something happening for real, yet she knew it can be resolved.
The girl who attends seventh grade said that no one came up with a cheap solution to fix and people being able to afford it.
Unfortunately, recent statistics by National Highway Safety Traffic Administration shows that 30 children in the US died due to someone forgetting them in the car seat.
Lydia’s invention, known as the Beat the Heat Car Seat, is designed with a special pressure pad which registers when someone who’s 5 pounds or higher is in the car seat and begins to measure the temperature.
The alarm is portable so it can be transferred to the other car seats.
The cost will be around $50.
For her invention, the girl won the grand prize in the CITGO Fueling Education Student Challenge, a competition with elementary and middle school students who apply STEM skills to find solutions for a sustainable and better world.
She Hopes that It Will soon Be Available Commercially
The girl will use part of the prize to continue the development of the alarm in hopes to making it available on the market.
She explains how she tried to enter in a lot of contests so she can get it out there and to do what it’s intended for-saving lives.
The girl also shared some of the money with her 14-year-old brother and 10-year-old sister, who’ve also helped in tuning the device.
When she made the prototype, she called her brother who’s awesome at coding and her sister, who’s good at peacemaking. When they got frustrated, she would bring snacks and help them improve their design.
Their mother, Covey Denton, a science teacher, explains how it was such an inspiration watching her three children work together to resolve an issue which has been present for years.
Denton says how children don’t know about impossible and their dreams are so big.
Her daughter Lydia has proven this countless of times and she recalls how she told her ‘mom, it’s not impossible, you just think it will be. I can do this.’
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