By Sarah Hall
Editor
In May, four children and two adults died when a fire tore through a home on Syracuse’s Martin Street. The home had no working smoke detectors.
Liz Westfall doesn’t want to see it happen again.
That’s why she and three other 2016 Cicero-North Syracuse High School graduates — Melissa McHugh, Amber Bush and Sabrina Chajkowski, who call themselves Women in Charge — have invented a combination cell phone charger-smoke detector/carbon monoxide detector.
“We started brainstorming about how to make fire safety automatic, and thought about the things that people do every night before they go to bed,” Westfall said. “We realized that one of the last things they do is plug in their cell phone. We know that very few people check their smoke detectors every night, but everyone plugs in their cell phone.”
The project came about as part of the inaugural Project Paradigm Challenge, which Westfall, who also founded the Hallowrun for Hunger, learned of through a scholarship website. The challenge invites kids ages 7 to 18 to use their STEM skills to come up with a way to reduce injuries and fatalities from home fires. The challenge netted some 50,000 entries, including inventions, community events, websites, songs, children’s books, plays, mobile apps, awareness videos, safety messages and more. The entries are posted on Project Paradigm’s website (projectparadigm.org) for people to vote on; the 10 projects with the most votes by Aug. 30 will get a $5,000 cash prize.
Right now, the charger-detector is in the top 10. The device combines an ionization smoke detector with a carbon monoxide detector and a smoke detector. It plugs into a wall unit just like a regular cell charger. The mockup is designed like a little fire hydrant; Westfall said the group made it out of bakeable clay.
Westfall said the final design would likely need some tweaks.
“We realize that a smoke detector is typically higher on the wall than a charger is, so for the final product, we would tweak the sensitivity so that it would detect smoke down to a few parts per million,” she said. “A carbon monoxide detector actually works better when placed lower on the wall, so that part is not an issue.”
Ultimately, the group would like to mass produce the devices and ship them out nationwide.
“We would love to partner with First Alert to produce these detectors and if possible, to have them shipped with every free government cell phone,” Westfall said. “They can be used at home and also travel with you to dorms, hotels, camps and anywhere else you spend the night.”
Westfall said it’s especially important to get these devices into low-income households, as they’re most likely to be without working smoke detectors.
“When I read that, I thought how perfect it would be to ship these with government-supplied cell phones,” she said. “That way, we could help those who need it the most.”
Public voting ends Aug. 30. Vote by visiting projectparadigm.org and clicking on “Public Voting.” The site also has information on home fire safety and lesson plans for teachers.
“Right now we are in the top 10 out of over 50,000 entries in the public voting contest,” Westfall said. “We need votes to help bring this to market. Every child deserves to go to sleep in a house protected by a working smoke detector.”
You can also view Women In Charge’s video at projectparadigm.org/monthly-contest#mid=25901370&offset=&page=&s=.
