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Fueling a Future City

Monday, January 23, 2012

Future CityOver 200 middle school students in 60 teams came to UT Arlington’s College of Engineering to show off how they would fuel a city of the future.  The North Texas Regional Future City Competition, sponsored by the Fort Worth IEEE section, was held in Nedderman Hall on Saturday, January 21st.  The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th gradeimagine, design, and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor.  Student teams plan and design virtual cities with SimCity 4 software (donated each by Electronic Arts), build physical models with recycled materials and a budget of just $100, research and write a solution to an engineering problem, write a narrative describing their city, and present their ideas before a panel of judges. This year’s essay topic is Fuel Your Future. It asks students to choose one energy source and design a way to generate electric power for their city that does not deplete naturalresources and has a limited impact on the environment.  The teams came from schools all across North Texas to demonstrate the last two parts of the five part Future City competition – the physical model and the presentations.

 

Volunteers from area professional societies and companies served as the judges.  Five finalist teams gave their presentations before a panel of special judges including one judge from Bentley Systems, Inc., one of the national sponsors of the Future City Competition.  Dr. Jean-Pierre Bardet, Dean of the College of Engineering at UT Arlington, observed some of the finalist teams.  Dr. Bardet stated how impressed he was that the presenting students, from FWISD McLean Middle School, were discussing concepts for cities of the future that he and his team had been researching in his previous work at USC as the Director of the Center for Megacities.

 

The awards ceremony was opened by Dean Jean-Pierre Bardet.  He praised the students and their teachers and mentors for their work and enthusiasm for this event.  He thanked the organizers from IEEE-FW section and the many volunteers who served as team mentors, organizers, andjudges for the event.  Dr. Bardet then turned the program over to Jean Eason, DFW Future City Competition Director, to announce the awards.  Special awards were given by companies and professional societies in north Texas including IEEE, ASQ, ASHRAE, and others.  The students enthusiastically cheered their peers as each award was announced.  Finally, the third place team, which received $500 for their school plus gift cards for each team member, was announced.  The second place team received $750 for their school plus gift cards.  Finally, winning $500 for their school, gift cards for each team member and a trip to the National Future City finals in Washington, DC, the first place winner was announced: McLean Middle School.

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