Even the Best Parent can Forget

An average of 37 children lose their lives each year to heat stroke while in a parked car. We are working to reduce these infant fatalities by developing, testing, and implementing a device that can detect this dangerous situation before it happens, and alert the parent/guardian so as to avoid any more of these tragic incidents.

Vehicular Heatstroke Preventative Device for Infants

Background:

With an average death toll of 37 innocent children each year, vehicle heatstroke poses a real danger to today's parents. Additionally, this problem shows no sign of going away. In fact, the number of reported infant deaths due to vehicular heatstroke was higher in 2017 than it had been in 5 years. Although it may seem that any half-capable parent would never put there baby in such a danger, the reality is that even the best parent can forget, and it only needs to happen once. Parents may either leave their child on purpose, believing they will return in a few minutes, or forget their child in the backseat.

Solution:

Our team is solving both of these scenarios by designing an after-market, car seat-attachable, baby monitoring system. The monitor will accurately predict when a dangerous situation may arise before it happens, and notify the parent/guardian so that the infant's life can be saved.

Timeline:

A final design has been selected, all ordered parts have arrived, and we have begun assembling the prototype. Most of the team is currently focused on programming and integration, and are currently involved in testing and data acquisition.

Phase1

Background Research

Primary goal is to research the problem and the solutions that have already been offered. It is imperitave that our solution has a competitive advantage to the existing products on the market. The project scope is also created to help maintain focus, and customer needs are established. This phase was completed.

Phase2

Concept Generation and Selection

The concept generation and selection phase has simple goals: to identify all possible solutions and then narrow it down to the few we believed to best satisfy our given customer needs. Then, a modified Pugh Matrix is used to select the theoretical top performer out of the selected options. This phase was completed.

Phase3

Hardware Assembly and Software Implementation

This design phase's primary concern is to assemble the prototype, and to implement a finalized version of the software, so that the device is running as designed and as expected. Our plan is to be finished with Phase 3 by March 10, and we are on schedule.

Phase4

Testing and Business Competition

Reserved for testing of the prototype to ensure it is up to our standards for Engineering Design Day. This provides ample time to assemble final documentation on our project without the added stress of having to finish the design process. This month will also be used for finalizing and practicing of our business pitch.

The Team

Troy Brumm

Troy (Mechanical Engineer) specializes in thermal fluids science, as well as hardware design. His interests include 3D printing, and CAD design. He hopes to intern at the MagLab in the summer of 2018 focusing on heat exchanger design and gas permeability.

Stephen Carr

Stephen (Mechanical Engineer) has interned with the Panama City Naval Surface Warfare Center and H2Engineering, working on a variety of tasks involving construction, testing, and mine counter-warfare related activities.

Justin Craig

Justin (Mechanical Engineer) specializes in project management, and functions as the team lead. Justin has hopes of starting a manufacturing company that specializes in mechanical design and 3D printing.

Charlie Cruzan

Charlie (Mechanical Engineer) specializes in materials science, and works on various projects centered around reinforced Carbon-Carbon composites. He's also pursuing software development, and is the team's software architect and webmaster.

Spencer Nguyen

Spencer (Mechanical Engineer), the team's lead researcher, works at the Smart Ceramic Material Manufacturing Lab assisting with the research of sensors for harsh environments. He is graduating in Spring 2018 and plans to return in the fall to pursue a Master's degree.

Dr. Michael Devine

Dr. Devine is the project sponsor, and the Entrepreneur in Residence at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. He's taught "Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization", that he first developed while Associate VP for Research at FSU.

Brought to you and funded by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Docs and Slides

Here you can find all of our course deliverables and presentations:

Engineering Design Day Poster

Poster to be used on Engineering Design Day.

Design Review 5

Fifth presentation, summarizing project and details of last phase of testing.

Operations Manual

Operations manual for the device.

Risk Assessment

Completed risk assessment form to cover liabilities.

Conference Paper

Conference paper, summarizing project from beginning to end.

Design Review 4

Fourth presentation, focus on hardware components and software mapping/design.

Evidence Book (updated March 2, 2018)

Up to date compilation of all deliverables in one document.

Fall 2017 Poster

End-of-semester poster presentation.

Virtual Design Review 2

Second presentation, focus on customers, targets, and concept generation.

Virtual Design Review 1

First presentation, focus on background, project scope, customer needs, and functional decomposition.