Stark County high school students develop new way alert drivers at dangerous intersection for class project

By Nadeen Abusada

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    UNIONTOWN, Ohio (WEWS) — In Stark County, a group of high school students is working on a solution for a dangerous intersection. They’re in the process of developing technology to make the intersection of Mayfair and Wise roads safer.

At Green High School, while many students are home enjoying their spring break, one group of students is testing out a project they have been working on since October.

In their STEM class, they were given the task of coming up with an idea that could be entered into the “Samsung Solve for Tomorrow” project.

“Samsung puts out some grant money and they challenge students to engage with their community to solve problems for the betterment of the community,” said High School Science teacher Christopher Kriebel.

They based their project on the intersection at Mayfield and Wise Road, looks like a normal intersection at first glance, but on closer inspection, there are multiple hills that cause blind spots.

“It’s like you have maybe three or four seconds of notice if there’s a car coming in at 45 mph, so it’s really high stress,” said Erich Duffrin, a Green High senior in the club.

The students’ solution involves sensors that detect oncoming traffic from distances up to 12 or 13 meters, which then light up a sign.

“We can say okay, this car is going to be an issue for the oncoming traffic, and we can alert the sign, which will start flashing,” said Erich.

Though the project started in class, the three students, Erich, Giuliana Ciccarelli-Aloisi and Alec Hemphill, took it on full-time in their science club once their STEM course ended. They spent hours outside of school and during their lunch break working to perfect their idea and even getting the city involved, working with the mayor and engineers.

Now as they continue to work on their invention, these students are in disbelief at what they’ve created. They just hope they’ll win the competition on April 5.

“So April 5, we need to submit our final video to Samsung explaining what we’ve done and what we hope to continue to do,” said Giuliana.

They may soon see it as a reality on the street.

“If we get to the next phase in the competition, it’s well within the realm of possibility, said Erich.

“It might not work at every intersection. But we were thinking like wheeling roads where you have those random stop signs,” said Giuliana.

The students will test the project at the intersection Thursday. If the students make it past this level, they could end up in New York in the top 10.

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