GREEN, Ohio (WJW) –  At the intersection of Mayfair and Wise roads in Green, on average more than 6,000 cars pass through here every day.

But the intersection has a problem.

“There are two point four crashes per year and .8 deaths per year,” STEM Team Member Erich Duffrin said.

And that doesn’t count the near misses.

You see, the intersection is at the top of a hill, and as cars approach, there are several seconds where you can’t see what’s in the intersection.

These STEM students at Green High School think they may have found a solution to give motorists some extra warning.

“We use sensors about 150 meters from the intersection to detect a vehicle, and we run wires, and we run wires all through here that turns on a relay that triggers the sign,” Duffrin said.

That sign has a flashing message that alerts drivers that there are vehicles approaching the intersection.

The team says that should give drivers an extra 6-second warning before going through the intersection.

If they can work it out….it will be a sleek solar-powered sign that works with lidar radar and a unique patented student-designed software package.

This is just a demo setup, to iron out the software and hardware and to get important feedback from motorists.

“I think just gathering the public’s feedback on how they interpret the sign and how many people are interpreting it the same way and it’s been interesting how people interpret the sign and the feedback we’ve received,” team member Giuliana Ciccarelli-Aloisi said.  

This all started as a STEM class project to enter the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition where student teams from around the country come up with ways to solve problems with science, technology, engineering and math.

But it’s more than that… they’ve received a lot of support from the city because of their fresh look at the issue.

“The mayor came into our classroom to figure out what we were going to do for the project and to help us to get started with it, and after that, he’s always been working with us,” STEM Team Member Alec Hemphill said.

Even if their solution for the road can’t be used, the most important thing here is that it has given the students ideas to build on and practical experience of finding ways to solve problems that are outside of the classroom.

The Green High team is using this test to prove that its concept and engineering are sound.

If the judges like their findings, they’ll they could be selected as one of ten teams from around the nation to present their idea Shark Tank-style to Samsung in New York City in May.