2026 North Alabama STEM Essay Contest Results

North Alabama SWE is excited to announce that the results of the second annual North Alabama STEM Essay contest are in! We received 386 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.

Imagine that you have been hired at an automotive manufacturing plant as a 6th grade engineering intern.
You and your team members are each asked to come up with a new feature to add to new car models. Your guidelines are that the feature should enhance the aesthetics, convenience, or safety of the vehicle. The feature should not be something that is already standard in vehicles, and the feature should be integrated into the vehicle.
Describe your proposed feature as if you are presenting to your fellow engineering interns. Your essay should use an informative tone. Your proposal should answer the questions below:
● How would the feature work?
● How does the feature integrate into the car?
● What technology exists today that could help you develop the feature?
● How would the feature affect you personally?

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.

The Wind Turbine Auxiliary System

Don`t you wish you could use all that wind power rushing past your car? Well, your car uses that. Your car uses the wind to cool down your engine, but there is still wind left over to be used. My idea is a wind turbine that would use the wind power that is rushing past your car and would be able to power all auxiliary systems. The wind turbine would be small enough to fit in the engine area, around 5-6 inches in length. The turbine would produce an expected 1 to 3 kilowatts of power (Szyk, 2024). A car auxiliary system uses 1 to 5 kilowatts but there would be 2 or 3 wind turbines in a vehicle (Subiantoro, et al, 2014).
My idea would not be to recharge the battery but to give energy to the auxiliary system and give it extra power for the following: air conditioning, heated seats, and the infotainment system. The wind turbines would be located in the grill of the car in between the front of your car and your engine. In a normal gasoline powered vehicle, the battery and alternator work together to provide electricity to the spark plugs, the important equipment like head lights, and auxiliary equipment. The battery and alternator must have enough power and capacity for all those items. My wind turbine is going to make it easier on the alternator to work all the different processes in the car. My idea is put in the bay of the vehicle but could also be placed under the front bumper on a very large vehicle.
You might ask the following: What happens when it is a very windy day and the car is parked in your driveway? It would just simply lock each side of the gears when you are parked, so it would stay in one place until you started the engine and started driving. What if the wind turbines produce too much energy? It would just simply store the power in the battery. Has anyone else tried to use this invention project that I have researched? Not that I have found, and not in any recorded data on google. Personally, this would help me because when I was younger my dad’s car battery died and we were stranded at school. If we had the wind turbine we could have still gotten home or to an auto shop. It would be great for Toyota or Mazda to use the innovation for cars; it would save lives and save cars for loyal uses. It would decrease the number of stranded cars on the roads, in all states. The Toyota engine is very big in the Tundra in my design it would fit perfectly in the engine bay.

Bibliography

Subiantoro, A., Ooi, K., & Stimming, U. (2014). Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs. Energy saving measures for automotive air conditioning (AC) system
in the tropics.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2360&context=iracc
Szyk, B. (2024, June 5). Wind Turbine Calculator. Omni Calculator.
https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/wind-turbine

A System That Will Save Lives

On average, thirty-seven children under the age of fifteen die each year from heatstroke after being left in a vehicle (Hot Car Deaths, 2026), a tragedy that can be prevented. As an intern, I would like to propose that we develop a cost-effective system that uses safe, Infrared AI thermal scanning technology to decrease the number of children who die from accidentally being left in a hot car.

A terrible occurrence, heatstroke claims the lives of many children every year after being left in hot vehicles.  As the eldest of six kids, I, and my family along with me, would be devastated if one of my siblings were to die in a hot car. The apparatus I am proposing we create would train AI to use an infrared scanner to detect body heat throughout the car. The owner/driver of the vehicle would be alerted through a special key fob when a heat signature is detected via a sounding tone. There would be several of these sensors throughout the trim of the inside of the vehicle. Acting almost like cameras, the devices would read heat signatures throughout the car. All scans of the vehicle will be recorded in the car’s “Black Box”. When a signature is found, machine learning will notify the driver.

 In addition to preventing accidental deaths, this appliance can also be used as a deterrent for crime. For example, it will alert you to unexpected occupants in your vehicle—a worry I (and probably many readers) have developed after reading “High Beams” from “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”. This technology may also deter people who purposely leave their children in vehicles by recording alerts that were sent to the driver. This information would also be logged in the car’s “black box” so the offender could not deny that they did not receive an alert.

Our appliance will add value to the vehicle. In researching aftermarket products, a company-manufactured AI infrared thermal heat-sensor setup could cost up to $2800 for a mid-tier system. The components of this product already exist, so it would be relatively easy to install and integrate. However, the value of this setup exceeds its cost. The appliance’s value would be high because it would increase safety and convenience, which would provide peace of mind for parents and families. For those customers without safety concerns, this latest and greatest technology would be a good selling point.

Long-wave infrared radiation will be used to scan for body heat directly. These waves do not cause harm and will be safe to use over time (Is thermal image harmful to human body?). Data will be processed by a machine learning algorithm trained to detect patterns that show the presence of a living being. Additionally, it will not cause driver distraction because the system will only alert you when you lock or unlock your car and/or once the vehicle is turned off.

By using this technology, I hope to completely or nearly eliminate hot car deaths one day. Knowing my family has this system would give me peace of mind knowing that my siblings and I are safe while we are running errands and rushing around in the mayhem of having such a large family and having so many activities to attend. My system will increase safety, be relatively cost-effective, and is very safe, thus adding value to the vehicle.

Bibliography

Hot Car Deaths. (2026, January 14). Retrieved from nsc injury facts: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/motor-vehicle-safety-issues/hotcars/

Is Thermal Image Harmful to the Human Body? (2026, January 14). Retrieved from GSTiR: https://www.gst-ir.net/news-events/infrared-knowledge/328.html

Put the AR in car!

Have you even played a game like Pokémon Go, virtually tried out furniture in your home, or used a Snapchat filter? These are all examples of Augmented Reality, or AR for short. Most people have heard about Virtual Reality, or VR, but some people haven’t heard about AR. Virtual Reality is where you are completely surrounded by a virtual environment mimicking an alternate reality. Augmented Reality is where you can still see the real world, but digital components are projected into reality, giving the illusion of the digital and real worlds blending. There are two types of AR: maker-based and marker-less. Marker-based AR is where the technology uses image recognition to detect a certain real world image and show the desired virtual image. Marker-less AR has to use a complex algorithm to detect images as they come into view and process that image to produce the desired result in a wide variety of situations. My system will use marker-less AR technology to detect and process various objects on the road. My invention for a car is an augmented reality infused windshield, illustrating potential threats and suggested solutions to the threat. It uses a mixture of sound and semi-transparent projections on the windshield for a full AR experience. The AR technology is supported by Artificial Intelligence, or AI, to make split second decisions and evaluate different possible outcomes of an action. The AR feature also relies on cameras inside and outside of the car to gain environmental and interior information. These features would keep drivers and passengers safe by encouraging driver engagement, evaluating potential threats, and suggesting responsible actions.

First, we will discuss the benefits of using Augmented Reality to keep drivers engaged. Sometimes when a person is driving for long periods of time or on a monotonous road, they can fall into a state called highway hypnosis. This is dangerous because you begin to zone out while driving. With my AR windshield, it would use cameras to detect where your eyes are looking. If your eyes have been in one spot for too long, it will project a semi-transparent message on the windshield and play a warning sound to warn you to snap out of your state of highway hypnosis and keep you engaged when driving. The interior cameras will also detect to see if your eyes are actually on the road and not looking down at a phone or other distractions. If you are distracted, it will warn you similarly to how it did for highway hypnosis. These projections are an effective way to keep drivers focused and engaged when driving.

Next, we will talk about how Augmented Reality can evaluate potential threats on the road to keep drivers safe. When driving, there may be dangers that aren’t visible to the driver that cameras outside of the vehicle would detect. Some examples are small debris that could puncture tires, hard to see curbs, and other vehicles in blind spots of the driver. The AI would evaluate what the threat is and send that information to

the projections in the screen. The AR projections would highlight the threat and play a warning sound, allowing the driver to respond faster. This is a revolutionary way to be safer about driving, reducing accidents, vehicle damage, and injury.

Finally, we will talk about how Augmented Reality can suggest responsible actions to whoever is driving using AI. The integrated AI would generate multiple different responses to different situations to help keep you, your passengers, and other people on the road safe. It would then share that information to the AR screen projectors so you can view the different responses. You can then pick a response, or use your own response to respond to the threat more effectively. My technology is significant because it is a completely integrated system to help drivers respond faster and safer to unexpected events.

In conclusion, my integrated system of Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, cameras, and sound is an innovative and futuristic way to be safe on the road and make driving more convenient by analyzing dangerous situations, generating responses to such situations, and making driving engaging. This becomes increasingly relevant to me as our world becomes more dependent on technology and the significance of the digital world increases. I will begin learning to drive in a few years, in a digitally centered world, where, inevitably, someone will be irresponsible and be on a device while driving. My AR system can help prevent accidents, and harnesses the digital world in a responsible way, showing technology can and should be used for good.

Works Cited

Hayes, Molly, and Amanda Downie. “Augmented Reality.” Ibm.com, 8 Apr. 2024, www.ibm.com/think/topics/augmented-reality.

Legg, Timothy J. “Highway Hypnosis: Signs, Causes, How to Handle It.” Healthline, 2 July 2020, www.healthline.com/health/highway-hypnosis#causes.

Microsoft. “What Is Augmented Reality or AR?” Microsoft.com, 2024,

www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/topics/augmented-reality/what-is-augmented-reality. The Franklin Institute. “What Is Augmented Reality? | the Franklin Institute.” Fi.edu, 21 Sept. 2017, fi.edu/en/what-is-augmented-reality.

The Honorable Merit recipients are listed below. They will each receive a STEM Newton’s Laws Engineering Kit.

  • June of Madison County for her essay “Sibling Separator Screen.”
  • Kennedy of Morgan County for her essay “Automatic Sunlight Windshield Tinter.”
  • Nina of Madison County for her essay “Nighttime Infrared Cameras.”

The Honorable Mention recipients are listed below. They will each receive a copy of The Way Things Work: Newly Revised Edition by David Macaulay.

  • Adelaide of Madison County for her essay “Water on Wheels.”
  • Harmony of Morgan County for her essay “Face Recognition.”
  • Madison of Blount County for her essay “A Hidden Side Ramp for Safer and More Inclusive Vehicles.”

School Awards are granted to the two schools with the highest percentage of participants by 6th grade population. This year, each school will receive a $700 school award and banner to display. The schools receiving awards this year are:

  • Randolph School, Huntsville, AL, sponsored by teachers Nikki Cornelison and Dr. Philip Taylor.
  • Union Hill School, Somerville, AL, sponsored by teachers Brianna Crowe and Kristin Williams.

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.

Check back in November 2025 to find out how you can participate in the 2026 North Alabama STEM Essay Contest.