HERITAGE MIDDLE SCHOOL IN WESTERVILLE, OHIO
WINS 2008 NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK FUTURE CITY COMPETITION
An engineering marvel, the city of RA in the Egyptian desert provides an ideal
quality of life for all citizens.
WASHINGTON, February 20 – A city of the future – “RA” – engineered by students from Heritage Middle School in Westerville, Ohio, has won the
In addition to winning first place, Heritage Middle School won a special award in the innovative solutions for water and wastewater utilities category, sponsored by ITT Industries and the Water Environment Organization. Heritage Middle School was the winner of the Ohio regional competition held on Saturday, January 19 at COSI Columbus. More than 30 Ohio schools competed to represent Ohio against teams from 35 other middle schools nationwide in the Future City National Finals, February 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. 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. Celebrating its 16th year, the Future City competition 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 3000TM 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 essay asked students to describe how nanotechnology will monitor their city’s structures and systems to keep its infrastructure healthy. Then they present and defend their cities before engineer judges at the competition. Some 30,000 students from more than 1,100 schools participated in 2007-08. 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 Heritage 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 the National Engineers Week Foundation, a coalition comprising more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Engineers Week 2008, February 17-23, is co-chaired by the IBM and the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA). Shell Oil Company is a major contributor to the Future City National Finals and a primary funder of nine regional competitions. The 2008 Essay sponsor is The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Future City National Finals teams this year represented public, parochial, private and home schools and were comprised of 53 girls and 54 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. |
Ohio competition made possible by our sponsors:
The 2006 Future City Competition – Ohio Region is made possible in part by Ford Motor Company.
Thanks to Substantial Contributor Battelle Memorial Institute, The Business of Innovation.
Finally, thanks to our facilities host: ME Companies for giving us a homebase.
Site created by the Future City Ohio Team and is maintained by D. Sutton of Endo Technologies
Last update 3/20/2008