ASTOUNDING INVENTION OF THE FUTURE
Student Wins Judges Special Award
January 20, 2001



R.J. Renzi displaying his invention of the Air Cooled Car Seat.
R.J. is a 9-year-old student at Bonita Canyon Elementary School

Exerpts from R.J.'s "Inventor's Log"
"My dad told me a story about what happened to one of his employee's baby daughter. She had died because she was left in a car and died of heat exhaustion. So I decided to invent a car seat that would turn on mini fans if the temperature in the car reached a certain temperature."

Today I came up with the idea of how to make my physical invention. I thought that the lap restraint is where the temperature gauge should be and the batteries would be on the side of the lap restraint and the mini fans were on top and pointed directly at the baby. I went out to the store and bought 3 mini fans, a cup holder, a piece of wood to represent the lap restraint and I used an old thermomenter at my house for the temperature gauge. I bought little "sensors" that were just little pieces of plastic. I used an old beach chair from home to be the "car seat." I attached all of the pieces using glue and then rested the "lap restraint" or piece of wood, on top of the beach chair and my model was finished."