2023 North Alabama STEM Essay Contest Results

North Alabama SWE is excited to announce that the results of the first annual North Alabama STEM Essay contest are in! We received nine total entries from across north Alabama, each of which was thoughtful and innovative. Our panel of judges thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the essays and would like to extend congratulations to every entrant.

This year’s competition was sponsored by Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, and the prompt can be found below.

Describe a new feature that you would add to a car. It could be aesthetic based, safety based, or serve another function.  

  • How would it work?
  • What would this improve?
  • How would this feature affect you personally?
  • What technology exists today that could help you develop this?

The top three awards are a $150, $125, and $100 prize in addition to a STEM kit and STEM book. The top winners are listed below in no particular order along with their essays.

Water sensors for cars

‘’The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’’ estimates 600 people die yearly due to immersed vehicles. The thought came to me, after seeing my mom have anxiety while driving over bridges, we could create a sensor system to be installed in vehicles to help those caught in potentially dangerous situations.

The water sensors would be located on the interior of the vehicle, and as well as one on the exterior of the vehicle. If the water sensor senses immersion the device will send an sos signal. This signal will be sent with GPS coordinates to emergency responders as well cell phones of your choice.

The sensors would improve safety Ratings on vehicles, lower driver anxiety for a majority of people, and lower the amount of people who drown in their cars every year. The National Weather Service sponsors the turn around don’t drown initiative, and they say most flood related deaths and injuries can be avoided. Drivers would be more likely to avoid flood waters knowing their vehicle will automatically call first responders in the presence of moisture detection.  

 I would be extremely thrilled if water sensors were a thing mainly because it shares the person’s location when in sos. The majority of people that had drowned in their car are pronounced missing for years and then find their body’s in lakes, rivers,etc. Which This is extremely sad however with the water sensors less people would have deaths like this.

There is a large amount of technology in current day that can help us make water sensors an actual feature to vehicles. Phones are one of the things that is severely necessary for the sensor. This reasoning is because it needs the GPS coordinates and for that you need the GPS which is on the phone. Another reason why we need the phone is due to the fact that the emergency sos settings on the phone as in the sensors would not be able to contact whoever by just the sensors. One more thing that is needed from the phones is the wifi. However, another piece of technology that also might help with this device is OnStar Automatic Crash Response this helps with car crashes if we grab this and re program this in some way we can make it meant for water 

The conclusion of my essay is that water sensors should be a car feature. Many people go driving in lakes ,rivers, floods,etc .That is dangerous and they would need help to make sure that they are safe.

Drowning in Cars – Statistics of? – Safety of Electric Windows – The Technical Forum Archive 

OnStar Automatic Crash Response

Turn Around Don’t Drown

Making Hot Cars a Thing of the Past 

Growing up in Alabama, the summer heat is brutal. This is not more apparent than when you get in a car that has been baking in the sun. When you just open the door, you can feel the blast of hot air hit your face. When you get in, the metal part of the seat buckle is super hot, and you cannot put your legs on the seat without burning yourself. This is why electronically dimmable windows (EDW) would be a major selling point for a car. 

Similar to the windows in the Boeing 7871, EDW is a type of glass that has a gel in it which changes its transparency depending on the amount of electricity going through it. The more electricity going through it, the more opaque it is. To adjust the dimness of the windows, there would be a dial for each window to individually adjust the opaqueness. Additionally, when the car is locked and parked, the car can be programmed so that all the windows would fully dim automatically. 

These two features would solve a lot of problems in addition to reducing the temperature of a parked car. The opaque windows would block UV rays from causing sun damage to the car interior. It would allow passengers to sleep without being disturbed by the sunlight during the day and headlights during the night. If a child or pet was accidentally left in the car, they would have more time to be rescued until it would be too hot. Also, the EDW would make it a lot more difficult for burglars to see what is inside your car. 

One potential hurdle is how to power the EDW when the car is off. Luckily, it does not take a whole lot of power. EDW uses about five watts per square meter per hour2. Considering that the average car has about 5 square meters of glass on it3, that means that all the windows would only use 25 watts an hour. If there is a 400 watt solar panel, which is 2 meters by 1 meter4, integrated into the roof of the car, it would produce 50-78 watts an hour5. The solar panel could power the EDWs along with charging the car battery! 

I look forward to when EDW is an available feature in cars. It would impact me on a daily basis by improving my car-riding experience, especially on hot days, while also providing general safety benefits. I believe with the implementation of EDW that being bombarded with hot air from your car will become a childhood memory. 

1 Pramod Prabhakaran 8 September 20 2023, Boeing 787 – Magical Windows, accessed 16 January 2024, <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/boeing-787-magical-window-pramod-prabhakaran>

2 Does Smart Glass Consume A Lot of Electricity, How About Power Consumption? 8 April 2019, accessed 16 January 2024, <https://www.huichipdlc.com/info/does-smart-glass-consume-a-lot-of-electricity-33958532.html> 

3 Intelligent Glass connects car windows with the on-board computer 25 July 2019, accessed 16 January 2024, <https://www.emove360.com/intelligent-glass-connects-car-windows-with-the-on-board-computer/> 

4 What can a 400-watt solar panel run? 6 October 2023, accessed 16 January 2024,  <https://www.sunbasedata.com/what-can-a-400-watt-solar-panel-run> 

5 Vikram Aggarwal 21 December 2021, How much energy does a solar panel produce?, accessed 16 January 2024, <https://www.energysage.com/solar/solar-panel-output/>

A new feature I would like to suggest for cars which could serve as an aesthetic, safety,  or an “I just like it” function would be polarized windows. Thinking about my  grandmother’s tinted glasses gave me this fabulous idea. Polarized, or anti-glare, in lenses helps reduce light glare and eyestrain. The polarized lenses improve vision and  safety in the sun. Polarized lenses have a special chemical applied to them to filter light.  The chemical’s molecules are lined up specifically to block some of the light from  passing through the lens. On polarized sunglasses the filter creates vertical openings  for light. Only light rays that approach your eyes vertically can fit through those  openings. The lenses block all the horizontal light waves bouncing off objects. As a  result of this filtering the image you see with polarized lenses are a bit darker than  usual, but objects look crisper, clearer, and details are easier to see. 

Polarizing windows in cars, trucks, and SUVs would utilize science, technology,  engineering, and math to the fullest. My suggestion of adding polarized windows means  embedding sensor, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and  exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. Because most  vehicles are equipped with SMART technologies and most individuals own smart phone and tablets this could be another great feature people can enjoy. People could control  when, how, where, and which window they change the tint in their vehicle from their  phone, tablet, or car dashboard.  

A search of Google revealed reports that harsh sun glare is the cause of up to 9,000  driving accidents per year and studies have estimated that sun glare is associated with  a 16% increase in life-threatening accidents. Polarized windows would promote a  decrease in sun glare incidents. A crisper, clearer, and detailed view can only be helpful  to everyone in the car especially the driver. Hot cars, seat burned legs, I will put on my  seat belt later when it cool, baby crying because the air conditioner is taking to long, I  can’t find my sunglasses, and my grocery spoiling can be minimized without me getting  a ticket because my tint is too dark since I was able to adjust my tint level with my  smartphone before driving off into the sunset with my surround anti-glare technology. 

My age prevents me from being in the driver’s chair. However, polarized windows would  make me feel safer and more comfortable while riding in the car. This would be cool and  future-like. What kids would not want to change the window tint? Can you say, “Best  nag ever.” 

Current technology that would be useful to implement my suggestion is NET framework,  SMART technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) would play a major role in  making this feature successful. 

Reference: 

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/polarized-lenses

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400257/

The honorable mention recipients are listed below. They will each receive a STEM kit and STEM book.

  • Emma of Madison County for her essay “Phone Box.”
  • Makenzie of Madison County for her essay “Make Cars Safer and Cooler!”
  • Scarlett of Madison County for her essay on motion sickness prevention in cars.

This year’s STEM kit was the Tinkering Labs Robotics Engineering Kit, and this year’s STEM book was Destroy this Book in the Name of Science – Brainiac Edition.

Thank you to Mazda Toyota Manufacturing for their support in creating and funding this competition.

And, thank you to the panel of judges who spent their time review essays. Without their commitment, this contest would not be possible.