SOUTHFIELD -- Three Lawrence Technological University students have developed a device that could save lives -- animal and human alike -- by preventing heat stroke in hot, locked vehicles.

The device started out as a senior project for the three electrical engineering majors, but the idea has attracted attention because of high-profile deaths this year of children left locked in hot cars.

It can be installed in any car with power windows. When temperatures inside the vehicle reach a predetermined point, it automatically rolls down the windows and begins honking the horn.

"I have a small child and I definitely wouldn't leave her in the car," said Milissa Matsen, one of the student inventors and mother of 3-year-old Marissa.

But not every child is so lucky. In this year's most high-profile case, Tarajee Maynor of Detroit left her two children, ages 3 and 10 months, inside her black Neon for more than three hours while she got her hair done at a salon in Southfield in June.

Nationwide, at least 120 children, most of them 3 and under, have died of heat stroke in parked cars since 1996, according to a study released by General Motors Corp. and the National SAFE KIDS campaign.

The students are discussing patenting their device and looking into whether to market it to automotive companies.

Joining Matsen of Farmington Hills on the project are Cleotha Morgan Jr. of Detroit and Batool Bitti of Madison Heights.

The trio created their device with about $228 worth of electrical circuitry, chips, sensors and wires, and have stowed it in a $3 plastic pencil box from Target. Holes poked in the top of the pencil box allow heat to get inside.

The presence of something living in the vehicle is determined by a motion detector that can be mounted on the ceiling and pressure sensors in the seats, similar to those that determine whether motorists are using their seat belts.

The pressure sensors could also be wired to a child safety seat for small infants who might be asleep and therefore unlikely to trigger the motion detector, Matsen said.

You can reach Janet Vandenabeele at (248) 647-7225 or jnaylor@detnews.com.