Centaurus High sophomore Gavin Short’s friend was hospitalized and his car totaled after he hit a deer while driving in the mountains.

Around the same time, 17-year-old Boulder cyclist Magnus White was killed when the driver of a car hit him while he was riding his bike on Colo. 119.

Those two incidents made Gavin want to make cars safer, so he and a team of Centaurus engineering students came up with an idea to add air bags to the front of cars. Their plan, created for a contest that asks students to address a community problem through STEM, uses AI and cameras to detect when to deploy the air bag.

“I can try to solve a problem in my community,” said Gavin, the team leader.

Gavin’s team is one of two from Lafayette’s Centaurus High selected as state finalists in the 14th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM competition. A team from Peak to Peak High School also is a state finalist in the competition.

“This contest lets us apply what we’re learning in class,” Gavin said. “And it’s schools across the country competing. You get to see other schools making these super awesome ideas.”

All together, five Colorado schools are among 300 state finalists. Of those, 50 teams — one from each state — will be chosen to compete at the national level. The state winners receive a video production kit from Samsung to document their project and $12,000 in technology and supplies. In April, judges will name three schools as national winners, giving each $100,000 in prize packages.

At Peak to Peak, the eight-student team used a previous school tree planting event as a starting point. Their idea adds STEM to a planned second tree planting.

They want to plant more trees in an open area by the school’s baseball field, crowding the trees so the competition encourages faster growth. The weaker trees will die and decompose, feeding those that remain. Native plants will draw pollinators, while mycelium will help improve the soil. Then they plan to add sensors to collect data on elements like soil moisture level.

“We’re using technology to engage the school,” said co-team leader and senior Shreya Senthilkumar. “People can learn from the forest.”

Senior Alex Zou, the other co-team leader, said the goal is for the K-12 school’s science teachers to incorporate the trees and sensor data into their classes.

“Students can get a hands-on experience,” he said. “This is a really good challenge because it gives us resources to pursue our goals. It’s a great opportunity to have students implement their ideas and make changes in the community.”

This is Peak to Peak’s third time entering the contest. Last year, Peak to Peak’s team won at the state level for a proposal for an inexpensive, efficient water testing device that could be used by homeowners following fires like the Marshall Fire.

At Centaurus, the second team is working on a system that uses AI to detect wildfires while they’re still small. Towers placed in forested areas would be equipped with cameras that would scan for smoke. If smoke is seen, a drone would investigate and send a message to a ranger, who could investigate in person.

“The contest provides you with resources to further your idea,” said Ethan Bonnell, a sophomore and the team leader. “It’s all about having an idea and engineering it to a final stage.”

After entering the Samsung competition last school year, several Centaurus students were inspired to create an engineering competition club. The club, which draws 10 to 30 students to the weekly before-school meetings, also recently competed in a gingerbread bridge challenge at the Colorado School of Mines.

“We’re really into engineering,” sophomore Jack Albenberg said. “I’m a hands-on person. I can apply everything I love into projects.”

Last year for the the Samsung competition, a Centaurus team designed an ice robot that could be deployed to sprinkle salt on icy surfaces.

Sophomore Henry Brubaker said the trickiest part of the Samsung challenge is narrowing down an idea, especially since the first stages of the competition are largely theoretical.

“That makes it more challenging,” he said. “You have so many more options. You have to really refine your idea.”