Pedestrian Alert System
The Pedestrian Alert system is an invention that was started in 2012 and funded by the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam™ initiative. The project continued to throughout 2017 in order to implement system in Ethiopia and was presented at the 2014 White House Science Fair. I had the honor of being the technical leader for the invention and presenting the work at numerous events. This project was the spark for love in the intersection of art and technology as well as my pursuit for being an educator. The whole project is documented on my High school design class’s blog.
Invention Statement
Newton North High School’s InvenTeam is producing a pedestrian alert system to be used in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the hope that it will also be implemented in other areas of the world. The system will warn drivers of crossing pedestrians and help pedestrians in developing countries safely cross dangerous roads. The invention will incorporate a dual-sensor method with a processing platform to calculate the arrival time of an oncoming vehicle.
To minimize environmental impact, we will build part of the system with used automotive parts, and its entire power source will be solar energy. To implement the invention in a nonintrusive way, we will incorporate aesthetics of Ethiopian art and architecture.
EurekaFest 2013
White House Science Fair 2014
Saint Joseph School Sister School
One of our local Ethiopian mentors visited our teammates over at Saint Joseph School in Addis Ababa. We sent with him the required components (including Arduinos) that our sister school will need to recreate the system. These components can allow our Ethiopian teammates to slowly work on replicating the system themselves, therefore strengthening and deepening their understanding of our project. We also sent them InvenTeam shirts from Lemelson-MIT.
The Ethiopian team consists of about 8 students, mostly 10th and 11th graders, and two faculty advisers. The team’s initial reaction was excitement over the Arduinos. They wanted to begin coding and assembling the components right away! One student already familiar with Arduino even inquired about potentially contributing additional coding to aid the efficiency and compatibility of the system.
He also updated our teammates on the progress of our project by showing video clips of our engineering meetings from our blog. The students and teachers presented great questions and suggestions. One teacher pointed out the cultural challenges of implementing a pedestrian alert system in a society that has never had such technology before. Another mentioned involving technology faculty from the Addis Ababa University to assist with implementation of the project. The team was overall very enthusiastic about the project’s future.
The Saint Joseph teammates were very excited about the progress the project has made and mentioned several other engineering experts they wanted to get involved. We are so appreciative to have their help and they are very eager to get the system on the streets!