FOR RELEASE:
February 1st, 2008
"FUTURE CITY" CHAMP From Franklin Middle School ,
Wheaton
TEAM
COMPETES FEBRUARY 19th - 21st AT NATIONAL FINALS IN
WASHINGTON , DC
Chicago, February: A city of the future -- "Qubitersum”
-- designed by students from Franklin Middle School,
Wheaton, has won the Chicago Regional National Engineers
Week Future City CompetitionTM. These
eighth- grade students – Karen Suarez, Jenny Birman and
Cole Manschot teamed up with their teacher, Liz
Simpson (Editors: Contact Ms. Simpson (630)
682-2060), and volunteer engineer mentor, Dave
Manschot, a packaging engineer, currently purchasing
director for Tate & Lyle Custom Ingredients. Assisting
these students in the competition were classmates Susan
Bywaters, Kale Hanavan, Mariel Tader
Qubitersum
is the
name for the new city established in the desert of
Australia. Qubitersum has many great
features. One of the greatest is that spray-on solar
cells are used to power all of the city buildings.
Within these spray-on solar cells are nanoscale
spectrometers that are aware of when day changes to
night and there is no more sunlight. When this happens
the sensors tell the fuel cells to take over the process
of keeping power running in the city. There is also a
wonderful maglev transportation system.
Mariel
Tader (14) said, “It was fun experience learning about
the different branches of engineering”. “Future City
is a great learning experience, I wish I could do it
year comments, Karen Suarez (13).
The REAL FUTURE
"This
program has been instituted by the engineering
profession to bring hands-on, practical applications of
mathematics and science to educate young minds as to the
essential role engineers play in creating our modern
technological society," replied Robert B. Johnson,
Bowman, Barrett & Associates, a spokesman for the
Chicagoland Future City Program. "The future of
America is not found on the basketball courts, football
grid irons, tennis courts, golf courses or baseball
diamonds, but in the minds of these young dreamers."
Chicago Runners-up include;
SCHOOL
PHONE TEACHER
Second
Place: Washburne Middle School, Winnetka
(847) 446-1380 Tim Hall
Third
Place: Chicago State University, Chicago,
(773) 995-4504 Marnie Boyd
Fourth
Place: St. Paul of the Cross, Park Ridge
(847) 825-6366 Christine Stypa/Laurie
Moran
Fifth
Place: Science Academy of Chicago, Chicago
(773) 479-2891 Muhammed Mamedov
All
participants in the competition received promotional
items including, participation medallions, E-Week
Tee-Shirts, Future City Water Bottles and a host of
other trinkets. These gifts were courtesy of HNTB,
ASCE-Illinois Section and other sponsoring societies and
companies. The winning teams will be feted at the
Chicagoland Engineers Week Benefit, February 22nd.
About the Competition
Using
"SimCity 3000" software, each team of students from
seventeen Chicago area schools generated a "blueprint"
computer printout and used it to build a scale model of
a section of their city. Use of recycled material is
strongly encouraged in the building of the model.
Students also had to make a poster and write an essay.
The students had to present and defend their future city
design before a panel of engineer judges, including:
Commissioner Frank Avila, PE Metropolitan Water
District of Greater Chicago
Rupert
Graham, PE Chief Engineer – Cook Country Highway
Department
Tim
Cullina, Rustoleum
Laura
McGovern. PE Alfred Benesch and Company
Denise
Armbruster, MHW
It
should be noted Armbruster back in 1995 was a student
competing in the competition. As a team member from
Central School, Glencoe went on to compete in the
National Finals! Thirteen years later she is now an
engineer judging what may become the next generation of
engineers.
Additional Awards
Special awards were present to schools for their
individual accomplishments in the competition. The
Chicago Committee on High-Rise Building (www.cchrb.org)
recognized the Franklin School for their city that
demonstrated the best use of skyscrapers in their
design. St Paul of the Cross School, Park Ridge
captured an award from the Structural Engineers
Association of Illinois (www.seaoi.org) for the best
creative use of materials, concepts and construction
techniques of structures in their model. The Institute
of Transportation Engineers (www.ilite.org) presented
Pulaski Academy, Chicago a special award for excellence
in transportation safety and operations. All together
24 “Special Awards” were presented to teams. Even
Chicago architects joined in presenting students from
Chicago State University, Chicago with the “Most Livable
Community” award from the Chicago Chapter of the
American Institute of Architects. The students voted
for an award too!. Chicago State University received
the peer award for the Best Model as selected by the
students. The best essay on the use of Nanotechnology to
protect Americas’ infrastructure was presented to
Franklin Middle School.
STUDENTS COMMENT
Jenny
Diaz (13) From Humphrey Middle School said says, “The
future is ours, and with some efforts we can make it
better.” “The Future City Project has increased my
knowledge in science and technology said, Nosifat
Sokoya (13) of Stone Academy. Ken Kielbes of St
Catherine of Alexandria noted, “After this competition I
really appreciate what engineers do for society.”
Jimmy Kane (14), St. Catherine of Alexandria School
put it succinctly, “This is the best competition ever!”
Derek
Johnson, co-coordinator offers this comment, "It is a
great experience for all involved -- the students have
fun while learning about engineering and gaining
valuable teamwork and presentation skills. Engineers,
mentors, judges and volunteers always leave impressed by
the students' ability and enthusiasm."
Regional chairman Don Wittmer notes, "It is exciting to
see the interaction between the students and witness the
enthusiasm that these students have in learning about
engineering and the real life problems that are
encounter everyday. Our hope is that this competition
helps students consider the possibility of studying
engineering when they attend college."
An Annual Event
On
January 26th students met at the University of Illinois
- Chicago Circle Campus to exhibit their models. More
than fifty professional engineers queried the teams as
to the merits of their designs. Entries were judged on
creativity, city layout, and attractiveness by a variety
of judges from the private and public sectors of
engineering. This year was the 16th year
for what has become an annual event for Chicago's
engineering community. The Chicagoland engineering
community is proud of their record as the only city to
host the competition since its inception in 1992.
The
sixteenth annual Future City Competition is sponsored in
part by the National Engineers Week Foundation, a
consortium of professional and technical societies and
major U.S. corporations and major U.S. industries.
Co-chairs of 2008 National Engineers Week are the
Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (http://www.cie-usa.org/)
and IBM Corporation. Local support is provided by
HNTB and ASCE-Illinois Section and other Chicagoland
engineering societies and corporations including
American Council of Engineering Companies, Society of
Women Engineers and the Associated Steel Erectors.
For
those schools wishing to compete in next year's
competition beginning about August 2008 Contact, Don
Wittmer at 312-930-9119 to be placed on the mailing
list.
SimCity 3000 TM is a trademark of Maxis, Walnut Creek,
California and a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic
Arts. National Engineers Weekr is a
registered trademark of the National Society of
Professional Engineers.
Editors note: Photographs of the students models are
available upon request.
These
8th-graders traveled travel to Washington, DC where they
will competed against 36 other entries from around the
country, February 18 – 20, 2008, in the Future City
National Finals ( www.futurecity.org).