The child car-seat designed by Christopher Piette would set off an alarm in an overheated car and could save the life of an infant. The computer model designed by Gabe Fine could well be the basis for a new way of studying the brain.

Both boys’ projects were judged to be the best at the state Science and Engineering Fair and now they are competing in Atlanta, Ga., in the international competition.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair runs through Friday and features the top projects from all 50 states and 45 countries. In its 59th year, the competition calls itself the “Olympics of Science Fairs.”

Fine and Piette took top honors during Rhode Island’s contest March 16, which drew a record 476 middle school and high school students to the Knight Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island, in Warwick.

They weren’t the only winners. Governor Carcieri and his wife selected the best projects that could benefit Rhode Island. They chose Bishop Hendricken student Andrew Arnaka’s work on short-takeoff aircraft and Barrington High student Fiona Paine’s project on nanocrystalline cells.

But only Piette and Fine went to Atlanta.

Piette, a 15-year-old sophomore at La Salle Academy, spent two months designing his unique safety seat. He estimates it took 200 hours to build and perfect the device, which has sensors that determine if a car is getting too hot for a child.

When the first sensor is tripped, an alarm sounds, lights flash and a call is automatically made to the child’s care-provider. When the second sensor is activated, a fan goes on to cool the child.

“I’ve heard stories about children being mistakenly left behind in cars,” Piette, of Greenville, says. “I thought there must be something that can be done.”

Fine, a 17-year-old senior at Scituate High School, thought of his project while studying neurobiology during an internship at Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, last summer. His computer model looks at interconnections within the brain.

He says he’s looking forward to competing against the other winning projects.

“Oh absolutely,” he says. “It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

akuffner@projo.com