New Device Unveiled At Cal Poly Expo In Honor Of Late Graduate
Jarrod Zinn
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) – A senior project expo at Cal Poly on Friday unveiled a number of innovations including a portable carbon monoxide sensor.
This was a little more than your ordinary senior project.
A legacy foundation was established after the passing of a Cal Poly graduate and his girlfriend.
The foundation funded a senior design project in their honor.
Cal Poly computer science graduate Johnny Heathco and his girlfriend Abby Lutz were vacationing at a 5-star resort in Mexico during the summer of 2023 and passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Courtesy: John Wesley Heathco Legacy Foundation
“My son and his girlfriend had a suite,” says Chuck Heathco, JWH Legacy Foundation’s co-founder. “They had carbon monoxide alarms, but they turned them off because they were beeping and they were annoying the guests.”
After establishing the John Wesley Heathco Legacy Foundation, Johnny’s parents approached the university, and adjunct Cal Poly professor Dennis Mikel in turn approached his students, adding the request to the roster of possible senior projects.
“We selected our team,” says Zeke Bukovansky, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student at Cal Poly. “We gathered and then chose our project based on what the team was interested in.”
Four students who now call themselves the Carbon Canaries stepped up, and they formally unveiled their new portable carbon monoxide detector here at the expo.
“That originally was derived from canaries that they would send in to the coal mine to make sure there was no carbon monoxide,” says Bukanovsky. “You know, if the canary didn’t come back here, then the mine was was dangerous and they would stop mining operations.”
The device is designed to attach to travel beverage tumblers, and emit an alarm when unhealthy co levels are detected.
“There are probably millions of people walking around right now being slowly poisoned that may be working in an office 8 hours a day that has a very low leak, no alarm,” says Heathco. “They have no idea other than maybe going home with a headache.”
Johnny’s father and co-creator of the legacy foundation says the device is currently in the midst of a patent process, but the prototype was displayed at the campus expo on Friday.
The foundation also supports the “Safe Stay Act” congressional legislation.
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