Newton North Students Work to Save Lives Halfway Around the World

Although the streets of Ethiopia are thousands of miles away from Newton, students from the Newton North High School InvenTeam are dedicating countless hours every week to saving lives in the African country. 

The Newton North InvenTeam is working on the design and construction of a solar-powered pedestrian alert system to be used in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the country's capital. 

"As an ancient civilization, Ethiopia was very prosperous, but now it is struggling with certain social and economic issues," said Felege Gebru, one of the students working on the project. "Poverty isn't something we can fix in our lab, but we can try to tackle the issue of road traffic safety."

The project hits close to home for Gebru, who was born in Ethiopia. 

"Being Ethiopian, it was really alarming to find out that my country had one of the worst [rates] for road traffic fatalities," Gebru told Patch during an InvenTeam open house last week.

According to a 2011 IRIN News report, Ethiopia has one of the highest road accident rates in the world, with one out of every five car accidents resulting in death. More than half of those traffic deaths involve pedesrtrians, the report said, and many victims are under 18 years old. 

Unlike the average crosswalk, the IvenTeam's pedestrian beacon does double duty: it helps alert drivers that pedestrians are crossing and warns pedestrians of oncoming traffic. A dual-sensor system measures the speed of an oncoming vehicle to determine whether it is safe for a pedestrian to cross. 

WATCH: Students explain mechanics of pedestrian alert system. Click video to the right.

Funded through , the project has involved months of research, design and construction. The team, which is made up of design and visual communications students, has had to handle everything from adjusting algorithms to finding statistics on Ethiopian streets in order to run tests, build prototypes and figure out how to make the system as effective as possible. 

Various mentors from MIT and the Newton community have helped the students along the way, providing insight on calculations and some technical components to the alert system's construction.

In addition, Newton's sister school in Ethiopia has also helped the InvenTeam with its development. The Ethiopian school, St. Joseph's, provided important information on traffic regulations, road and sidewalk dimensions as well as car and pedestrian frequency.

Aside from the technical aspects of the project, students also had to design the actual towers and beacons that will be implemented in Addis Ababa. To do so, students spent time this fall studying Ethiopian art, aesthetics and architecture.

Michaela Carter, one of the students working on the system's design, said the students created "inspiration boards" using different colors and patterns as well as winged animals and lions, two common themes in the country's artwork. Then, the students made prototypes using the Ethiopian inspiration and solicited feedback from the local Ethiopian community. 

"We heard that art is less intrusive, and people are more accepting [of art], so if it relates to their culture they are more likely to use [the system]," Carter said.

But the project doesn't end with the beacon system itself -- students are also working on developing educational tools to help teach the Addis Ababa community about the alert system. 

The educational components include a picture book, an animated web series, signs, billboards and a YouTube video marketing campaign. 

WATCH: Students explain educational components to the pedestrian alert system. Click the video above.

This June, the students hope to present a fully functioning life-sized model of their pedestrian alert system for the Lemelson-MIT's EurekaFest in June.

However, the team is looking for $8,000 in donations to help fund the full construction costs as well as money needed to attend the EurekaFest. For more information on how to donate to the team and their project, visit the Newton North InvenTeam website.