Young Utah inventors aim for devices that someday could save your plants, even your child

This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utah’s biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.

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A device that automatically waters your houseplants when they get too dry?

A phone app that warns you if you’ve left a child or pet in a hot car?

How about shoes with interchangeable soles so you can change sports without changing shoes?

Those are three of the 20 ideas from Utah high school students who are competing for $30,000 in prizes in the University of Utah Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute’s annual High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge.

Are any of these ideas really going to make it to market?

The inventors like to think so, but it hardly matters. The real purpose is to raise the next generation of problem-solvers.

‘Trying to get a feel’

“Right now, we’re just trying to get a feel for what the business world is like, what it’s like being an entrepreneur, and how these products could actually fare in the real market,” said Anhkhoa Le, a Skyline High School junior whose team came up with GreenDream, the automatic houseplant-watering system.

Le explained that GreenDream started with a brown nightmare. “There was this bamboo plant in my house. I got it as my lucky bamboo plant, and I was really lazy. So I, like, kill two shoots. It’s like, oh shoot, I gotta figure out a way to not kill any more of these shoots.”

GreenDream uses a moisture detector in the soil to trigger release of water from a nearby bucket. Being a prototype, the GreenDream “looks like a bomb,” Le said. “Like it’s just wires attached to one another.”

Arivan Verma, another member of the GreenDream team, said the Lassonde contest is itself a lesson in public outreach because one of the prizes is chosen by an online vote open to anyone. (Those interested in voting can go to https://lassonde.utah.edu/hsuec/vote2024/. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. Friday.)

“When it comes to business, sure, you do have to focus on what the product is, but you also have to focus on the marketing aspect,” Verma said. “So one of our biggest focuses for this week was trying to get flyers out and talk to people about GreenDream, and mainly look at what concerns or feedback they had for our product.”

The power of two

For Skyline juniors Karina Sucahyo and Grace Kim, the contest has been about the power of collaboration. Sucahyo said she had thought for a long time about the perils of hot cars and “the prospect of being able to save a life,” but it wasn’t until she met up with Kim that her concern led to GuardianBuddy, the app to warn of overheating car interiors.

“She handled more of the actual hardware portion, and, like, the coding,” said Sucahyo, “So after I was able to meet with Grace, who had more skill and ability than me, I was able to put this idea into fruition.”

Kim proved a willing partner, in part because she recalled a story with her aunt and cousin. “One day, she went into work. And she was like, ‘Oh, I forgot I had my child in the car.’ It was like only a minute or two, but it was still considerably dangerous. And so for a entire month, she tied a string from herself to her child.”

Their idea relies on two devices in the car — a temperature sensor and a motion sensor — with a Bluetooth connection to a phone app. When a driver exits a car and leaves Bluetooth range, the app will send a warning if the sensors detect both high temperature and motion inside the car.

“When a child is facing some type of discomfort within the vehicle, they usually stick their arms up like, ‘I’m frustrated,’ or ‘I need to do something,’” Kim said. “And so motion was one of our key factors that can really help us find whether or not they’re having this frustration.”

Both acknowledge their solution’s limitations. It works only when the driver is within Bluetooth range. The jump to incorporating cellphone technology is beyond a high school project. But they intend to keep working on it, regardless of what happens Saturday.

Four of this year’s 20 finalists came from Skyline, where finance and economics teacher Sydney Lott has been sowing seeds of entrepreneurship. He oversees the school’s DECA chapter, which won the state DECA competition last week. He has also supervised Skyline’s successful student teams in The Stock Market Game, an online simulation intended to teach students about stock trading.

It’s real money

In the case of the Lassonde contest, Lott could point his students to a real-life example: A Skyline team that included Sucahyo’s brother, Adrian Sucahyo, won the $10,000 prize two years ago with Pure Solutions, a water-quality testing product for consumers.

“They were like, ‘Wait, they won $10,000? We can win $10,000 in high school? How hard is it?,’” Lott recalled the students asking. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know. You guys know those guys. Are they super geniuses?’ They’re like, ‘No, that’s my brother. I know he’s not a genius.’”

The students say the experience has expanded their thinking about careers.

“I used to really want to do engineering, but slowly business has crept up on me,” Le said. “So I’m, like, stuck between the two.”

Lott said he’s seen business education blossom at Skyline. “I’ve got 40 or 50 kids that work on Wall Street. We’ve had kids who have gone to all the Ivy League schools. It’s been really cool. They’re smart kids.”

This year’s 20 finalists came from 12 schools, and their products range from the “All in One Shoe” from Hillcrest High School to a crypto mining app from Park City High’s team. The contest is sponsored by Zions Bank.

The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is part of the U.’s business school. Winners of the high school contest are invited to continue their efforts at the institute, which hosts a similar contest, the $100,000 Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, for Utah college students.

A public showing of the 20 finalists and announcement of the high school winners will happen Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Lassonde Studios on the U. campus. The public is invited.