January 29, 2008 — Imagine a city with a communication system that uses satellites to convert speech vibration to energy. Or a city with sleek vacuum tubes for quick transportation and vertical greenhouses to grow crops in locations where soil and resources are limited.
You don’t have to imagine, however, since seventh- and eighth-grade students already did. More than 30,000 students, in fact, from 1,111 schools in 40 regions in the United States are participating in the 16th annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition and creating cities like the above. This year’s competition focuses on nanotechnology, and students must develop concepts for the practical application of built-in nanotechnologies — the creation of materials, devices and systems through manipulating matter less than 100 nanometers in length — to monitor parts of a city's infrastructure.
Students create their future city digitally using SimCity 3000 software. They then transform their ideas into reality by sculpting a large tabletop model using recycled materials. Each team is judged for their models, an essay, and a presentation defending their approach.
The regional competitions are held in January, and the winning teams receive an all-expense-paid trip to the Future City National Finals in Washington, D.C., Feb. 18-20 Click here to see the regional winners.
While the students normally create utopias, this year they’re also confronting the world’s worst urban disasters, determined to build a better tomorrow.
Students at Westridge Middle School in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, for example, are using the hometown of their fellow Kansans in Greensburg for the basis of their Future City. Last May, a Category 5 tornado destroyed 95 percent of Greensburg and killed 11 residents. “It was blown straight off the map,” explains team member Charlie King Hagan, 13, adding confidently, “so we’re taking what was left and building into the future.”
At Kutztown Area Middle School in Pennsylvania, students are wrestling with the difficulties of rebuilding Gaza, a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the team is looking beyond the hostilities by creating a way to desalinate seawater for the region using nanotechnology.
Alex Laudadio, 12, from Kutztown Area Middle School, says the seriousness of his efforts brings gratification. “Sure you can get to level 50 of the video game and that does give you satisfaction,” he says, but at the end of Future City you’re proud of what you’ve done. That’s true happiness.”
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Students from St. Thomas More School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana won the 2007 Future City competition. The 2008 competition will be held Feb. 18-20.
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