ST. THOMAS MORE SCHOOL IN BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA WINS 2007 NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK FUTURE CITY COMPETITION
Mwinda, meaning light in Lingala, a dialect of the Republic of Congo,
is a new city in an old land
WASHINGTON, February 21 – A city of the future – “Mwinda” – engineered by students from St. Thomas More School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has won the 2007 National Engineers Week Future City Competition™. The students – Jake Bowers, 12, Emily Ponti, 14, and Krisha Sherburne, 12 – teamed up with their teacher Shirley Newman, and volunteer mentor, chemical engineer Guy Macarios. St. Thomas More was the winner of the Louisiana regional competition held on January 26 in Alexandria.
Teams from 35 middle schools nationwide, winners of regional competitions in January, participated in the Future City National Finals, February 19-21 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Second place went to Nevada Christian Home School from Sparks, Nevada for their Future City “ALTA (Alpine Living Tahoe Adventure).” The Nevada Christian Home School team, which won the Northern Nevada competition held on January 20 in Reno, is comprised of students Cameron Etchart, Ethan Foster, and Ari Henry, teacher Tracy Henry and volunteer mentor, Pete Etchart, a civil engineer with the City of Sparks.
Helen Keller Middle School in Royal Oak, Michigan, from the Michigan competition held January 17 in Novi, took third place honors for their Future City, “Mirai.” The team is comprised of Mackenzie MacDormott, Sarah Lewan and Mairi Mundy-Dowd, teacher Donna Tarsavage and volunteer mentor Jennifer Partlan, an electrical, controls and system engineer at Jacobs.
The St. Thomas More team’s Future City – Mwinda, meaning light in Lingala, a dialect of the Republic of Congo – is a new city in an old land. The mission of Mwinda is to ensure opportunity for a good life by providing power, housing, water, food, and transportation. Located on the Fimi River near the Equator, Mwinda is in an area necessary to this mission: access to water, proximity to Lake Mai-Ndombe, settlement both on savannah and peripheral forest lands, and availability of rich mineral deposits. With innovative technology and modern engineering practices, Mwinda has developed an integrated, interdependent industrial design. Using principally renewable energy resources, the city produces excess electricity which it sells to other cities and countries of what has been called the Dark Continent. In one application, PAFC fuel cells (PAFCs) are powered with hydrogen from phyto-hydrogen generators, genetically enhanced algal cultures which produce hydrogen as a byproduct, and with solar collector hydrogen generators. A second system, TseTse (mythological African goddess of lightning), uses massive lightning containment capacitors, composed of dielectric glass and conductive metals from waste. Third, the Candu Reactor, powered by raw uranium mined robotically, operates in the industrial zone.
Future City, celebrating its 15th anniversary, asks middle school students to create cities of the future, first on computer and then in large tabletop models. Working in teams with a teacher and volunteer engineer mentor, students create their cities using the SimCity 3000™ videogame donated to all participating schools by Electronic Arts, Inc. of Redwood City, California. They write a city abstract and an essay on using engineering to solve an important social need – this year's theme is using fuel cells to power a city of the future. Then they present and defend their cities before engineer judges at the competition. Some 30,000 students from more than 1,000 schools participated in 2006-07.
The Future City National Finals is hosted by Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading engineering software company, and chair of the competition’s Leadership Council. Bentley also provides the first prize for the St. Thomas More School team – a trip to US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. All regional winning teams received an all-expense-paid trip to Washington for the National Finals. Future City is sponsored in part by Engineers Week, February 18-24, a consortium of more than 100 engineering societies and major corporations, co-chaired in 2007 by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and Tyco Electronics Corporation. Shell Oil Company is a major contributor to the Future City National Finals and a primary funder of nine regional competitions. The 2007 Essay sponsor is The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA).
Future City National Finals teams this year represented public, parochial, private and home schools and were comprised of 55 girls and 50 boys. As varied as the regional winners may be, middle school students in the nationwide, not-for-profit engineering education program all have one thing in common: they’re taking a hard look at the future and the main result seems to be a determination to make it better.
Future City poses challenges that intrigue young minds and demand their best. In turn, students are energized about science, technology, and mathematics, laying an early groundwork for a much larger qualified engineering workforce, which is critically needed today. “One of the greatest challenges for those of us with engineering at the core of our businesses is securing a talented and diverse workforce for the future,” says Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley. “Our company has joined many others in supporting the National Engineers Week Future City Competition, which captures the attention of students when their choice of courses could have otherwise foreclosed engineering as a pursuit. The combination of engineer-mentors, hands-on learning, and teamwork engages students’ imaginations and interest in engineering.”
John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil Company, which provides funding to nine regional competitions in addition to the National Finals, says the forward thinking the competition generates benefits the entire profession. “Shell encourages achievement in technology and engineering," he notes, "so Future City fits perfectly with our strategy to support promising students as they pursue innovative projects with an underlying emphasis on math and science, extremely important skills for many occupations at Shell. And as the number of graduates in engineering and geosciences diminishes, it's ever more important to encourage students to build these skills at an early age."
For Future City National Director Carol Rieg, the program delivers because it taps so many skills and motivates students to cooperate and make the most of each individual’s strengths. “All the talents that engineers use in their careers – math, science, language arts, communication skills – the students in Future City must use, too. And, like engineers, they do so through research, teamwork, and compromise,” she says. “These important lessons don’t come from books, but from hands-on projects like Future City. Considering the growing popularity of the program, it seems the students agree.”
In addition to the Top Five teams announced at the Future City National Finals on Wednesday morning, February 21st, 30 Special Awards were handed out at a ceremony later in the afternoon, hosted by Shell Oil Company. The complete list of awards follows:
First Place: St. Thomas More School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from the Louisiana regional competition. The St. Thomas More team receives a trip to US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, provided by Bentley Systems, Incorporated.
Second Place: Nevada Christian Home School in Sparks, Nevada, from the Northern Nevada competition. Team receives a $2,000 scholarship for the school's technology program, provided by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).
Third Place: Helen Keller Middle School in Royal Oak, Michigan, from the Michigan regional competition. Team receives a $1,000 scholarship for the school’s technology program, provided by The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).
Fourth Place: Kutztown Area Middle School in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia regional competition.
Fifth Place: Walter S. Parker Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts, from the New England regional competition.
Best Essay, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA): Nevada Christian Home School in Sparks, Nevada, from the Northern Nevada competition.
Best Model, sponsored by Tyco Electronics Corporation: Kutztown Area Middle School in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia regional competition.
Most Innovative Design of Infrastructure Systems, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE): Flathead Valley Montessori Academy in Kalispell, Montana, from the Idaho regional competition.
Best Indoor Environment, sponsored by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE): Valley Middle School in Oakland, New Jersey, from the New York City regional competition.
Most Sustainable Buildings, sponsored by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE): Milpitas Christian School in San Jose, California, from the Northern California regional competition.
Best Futuristic City, sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): Hubble Middle School in Wheaton, Illinois, from the Chicago regional competition.
Best Communications System, sponsored by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers–USA (IEEE-USA): Turkey Valley Community School in Jackson Junction, Iowa, from the Iowa regional competition.
Protecting Public Health and Safety through Competent and Ethical Engineering Practices, sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE): Valley Middle School in Oakland, New Jersey, from the New York City regional competition.
Most Innovative Power Generation System, sponsored by the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program: Dillard Drive Middle School in Raleigh, North Carolina, from the North Carolina regional competition.
Best Manufacturing Zone, sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation: St. Thomas More School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from the Louisiana regional competition.
Best Transportation System, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration: Nevada Christian Home School in Sparks, Nevada, from the Northern Nevada regional competition.
Excellence In Systems Integration, sponsored by the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): St. Philip Neri School in Midwest City, Oklahoma, from the Oklahoma regional competition.
Best Residential Zone, sponsored by the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA): Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Virginia, from the Washington, D.C. regional competition.
Best Futuristic Personal Transportation System, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company: Riverview Middle School in Huntington, Indiana, from the Indiana regional competition.
Best Use of Aerospace Technology, sponsored by The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) – National Capital Section (NCS): Hubble Middle School in Wheaton, Illinois, from the Chicago regional competition.
Best Use of Innovative Construction Materials and Techniques, sponsored by the American Society for Quality – Design and Construction Division: Nativity of Our Lord School in Orchard Park, New York, from the Buffalo regional competition.
Best Representation of Manufacturer Supply Chains, sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Kimberly-Clark: Nevada Christian Home School in Sparks, Nevada, from the Northern Nevada regional competition.
Best Land Surveying Practices, sponsored by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES): Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York, from the Albany/Capital District regional competition.
The Most Innovative Uses of Aggregates (Crushed Stone, Sand and Gravel) in Designing Future Cities, sponsored by the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association (NSSGA): Westridge Middle School in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, from the Kansas/Great Plains regional competition.
Best Management of Water Resources, sponsored by Bentley Systems, Inc.: Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from the Florida regional competition.
Most Healthy Community, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects: St. Bede School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from the Pittsburgh regional competition.
Best Fire Protection Engineering, sponsored by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers: Life Christian Academy, from the Alabama regional competition.
Most Innovative Design/Construction Approach to Achieving Environmental Sustainability, sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Kutztown Area Middle School in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia regional competition.
Excellence in Education for High-tech Manufacturing, sponsored by the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center: Valley Middle School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, from the Minnesota regional competition.
Innovative Solutions for Water and Wastewater Utilities to Reduce Costly Reinvestment in America’s Aging Infrastructure, sponsored by the Water Environment Federation and ITT Inc.: St. Patrick’s School in Pasco, Washington, from the Washington regional competition.
Best Use of Fuel Cell Systems as a Sustainable Energy Source, sponsored by Plug Power, Inc.: Helen Keller Middle School in Royal Oak, Michigan, from the Michigan regional competition.
Best Future City Project Plan, sponsored by the Project Management Institute: Heritage Middle School in Westerville, Ohio, from the Ohio regional competition.
Best Project Team, sponsored by Washington Group International, Inc: Palominas School in Hereford, Arizona, from the Phoenix regional competition.
Best Context Sensitive Which Integrates Historical & Cultural Features into Today’s Environment, sponsored by the Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineers, Inc. (Association of Cuban Civil Engineers in Exile, Inc.): Kingwood Middle School in Kingwood, Texas, from the North Texas regional competition.
People’s Choice Award, selected by the students: Heritage Middle School in Westerville, Ohio, from the Ohio regional competition.
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