After learning that kids die in hot cars because they’re accidentally left behind, Lydia Denton started working to come up with a solution. Two years later the 12-year-old North Carolina girl succeeded and her Beat The Heat Car Seat invention has won the $20-thousand grand prize in this year’s CITGO Fueling Education Student Challenge.
Lydia’s invention is designed with a pressure pad that registers when something five pounds or heavier is put in the car seat. It measures the temperature of the car and alerts parents and emergency officials when it reaches 102-degrees. The Beat The Heat Car Seat can be transferred to other car seats and would cost around $50.
The soon-to-be seventh-grader plans to use part of her winnings to continue to develop her invention so she can get it to market. Lydia says she entered it in as many contests as she could to “get it out there so it can be something that will save lives and be something that most people can afford.”