Alissa Chavez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alissa Marie Chavez is an American inventor and entrepreneur. She is known for her invention "Hot Seat", an alarm for child car seats being left occupied, which she invented as a teenager.[1] She is the founder and CEO of the company Assila.[2]
Chavez was born in 1997 and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by her single mother, a childcare owner.[2][3] She has always had a passion for working with children. The children she has worked with have been her inspiration behind her children's products.
Invention
At age 14, Chavez conceived the Hot Seat alarm as a science fair project, after hearing that many babies died from being left in cars.[4] She later refined the idea and patented it, helping people with newborn care.[5] The invention by Alissa Chavez aims to reduce the chance that a child will die in an overheated car.
Alissa worked with engineers to perfect the hot seat and raised money on a site named "Indiegogo" to develop a prototype so it could be manufactured. The hot seat consists of a pad that can sense if a child is in the car and communicates wirelessly with a fob attached to a parent's key chain. If the parent walks more than 10 meters away without the child, it will trigger the fob, the parent's smartphone through the app, and the car itself. Alissa raised enough money on "Indiegogo" to build a prototype that manufacturers can use to mass produce the product. The reason Chavez wanted to create this product to help kids is because her mother runs a home daycare, so she was affected by stories about children dying in hot vehicles after being forgotten by accident.[6] Alissa released her second product in the spring of 2019. In 2019 she announced a new invention, a baby bottle that stores water and dried formula separately, for mixing when needed.[7]
Alissa started her own company called Assila LLC. Assila is her name backward, which was inspired by Oprah's "Harpo." She started her company at age 14 after hearing the many tragic stories of children dying from being accidentally left in hot vehicles.
