Heat Aware

Heat Aware is a Raspberry Pi–powered IoT system that monitors a car’s interior temperature and automatically calls a designated phone number if it becomes dangerously high, helping protect pets and children from heat-related emergencies.

Inspiration

Many pets and children are left in cars accidentally, leading to dangerous overheating. We wanted to build a simple, reliable system that alerts caregivers in real time to prevent heat-related accidents.

What it does

Monitors car interior temperature with a digital sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi
Automatically places a phone call (and optional SMS) to the registered caregiver if temperature exceeds a threshold
Logs all temperature readings and alerts in MongoDB for analysis and historical tracking

How we built it

Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, DS18B20 or DHT22 temperature sensor, breadboard, jumper wires, internet connection
Software: Node.js + Express backend, MongoDB database, Twilio Voice API for calls, onoff or rpi-dht-sensor Node packages for sensor integration
Deployment: Raspberry Pi runs continuously in the vehicle, sending data to the cloud for monitoring and alerting

Challenges we ran into

Integrating real-time sensor readings with cloud logging
Ensuring phone calls trigger reliably without false positives
Managing secrets securely in Git and Python projects

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a fully functional IoT prototype capable of alerting caregivers automatically
Integrated hardware, cloud database, and Twilio alerts seamlessly
Implemented secure secret management using environment variables