May 21, 2001
ENGINEER
MENTORS: HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE -- AND OTHERS --
BETTER UNDERSTAND THE "STEALTH" PROFESSION
Engineer
mentors who volunteer for the 2002 National Engineers Week Future
City CompetitionTM will help introduce a new generation of young
people to the essence of engineering. At the same time, however,
they'll be sharing that message with a much larger audience, as
schools, teachers, parents, businesses, and local and national
media get involved with this increasingly popular educational
effort.
Engineering is sometimes called
the stealth profession. For all the good that engineers do, most
people rarely consider the critical role they play in society.
That makes the Future City Competition, now in its tenth year,
an ideal way to showcase the many facets of engineering, its challenges
and rewards. And, not coincidentally, it allows engineers a chance
to shine as individuals, too.
The Future City Competition invites
seventh- and eighth-grade students -- working in teams of three
under the guidance of a teacher and engineer -- to design a city
of tomorrow, first on computer and then in large, three-dimensional
scale models. Beginning at the school level, and then in regional
competitions across the United States, the student teams vie for
a chance to win a free trip to Washington for the national finals.
Using SimCity 3000 software donated free to every participating
school by Maxis Corporation of Walnut Creek, California, students
plan and design their city through the fall and then build their
models in December and January. Regional competitions are held
in January, with national finals during National Engineers Week,
February 17-24, 2002.
Besides building the models, which
are often dazzling, and defending their city's design at the competition,
the Future City program also calls on the teams to write abstracts
and essays about their city. The 100- to 200-word abstract describes
how each city operates. Developments such as communication chips
implanted under every citizen's fingernails at birth and solar
powered monorails were just two of the more intriguing ideas proposed
by students at the 2001 competition.
The 300- to 500-word essay gives
young people a chance to test their mettle with different topics
each year. The essay for the 2002 competition will explore the
environment, requiring students to explain how their particular
city design deals with conservation, recycling, pollution controls
and other important ecological issues.
At every stage of the process, mentors
engage the students to work as a team, solve problems, overcome
obstacles and achieve success -- in short, the very things engineers
do for a living. They also help the students "keep it real,"
to borrow a Gen Y phrase, by ensuring that every contrivance,
innovation, and invention is based on sound engineering principles.
A team that wants a wind-generated power source to run their city,
for example, must face the consequences of that decision, such
as budgeting sufficient city funds to pay the higher initial building
costs. If a town is dependent on a series of transmission towers
for its communications system, the students must also make back-up
plans in case the towers are destroyed in a natural disaster.
In the end, the students learn the
basics of engineering and they learn it from a pro, someone who
can reveal the profession's nitty-gritty in a way that helps these
young people achieve their goals and gain valuable insights on
a profession they might otherwise miss.
Last year, 25 regions held competitions -- Alabama, Buffalo, Chicago,
Colorado, Dallas/Fort Worth, South Florida, Hampton Roads (Virginia),
Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Michigan, Milwaukee,
Minnesota, New York City, Ohio, Oklahoma, Omaha, Philadelphia,
Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Francisco, Washington state
and Washington, D.C. -- reaching more than 26,000 students. In
2002, the competition is expected to expand to Reno, Nevada, Albany,
New York, and the states of Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, and Utah.
The Future City Competition is sponsored by the National Engineers
Week Committee, a consortium of engineering societies and major
U.S. corporations, in 2002 co-chaired by the American Society
of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and DuPont.
The national champion team receives
a free trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, donated
by the National Engineers Week Committee. The second-place team
receives a large cash grant for the school's technology program,
donated by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. A scholarship
for the third-place team's school technology curriculum is provided
by The National Society of Professional Engineers. Nearly 20 special
awards are also presented by various engineering societies, corporations,
and government agencies. Other prizes are awarded at the regional
competitions.
The 2001 Future City Competition,
held February 20 and 21 at Washington's Hyatt Regency Capitol
Hill, was won by St. Barnabas Catholic School in Chicago. Second
place went to Lewiston Porter Middle School in Youngstown, New
York, from the Buffalo competition, and third place to Drexel
Hill Middle School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia
competition.
For more information on volunteering
as an engineer mentor for the 2002 Future City Competition, please
contact Carol Rieg, National Director, at (301) 977-6582, via
e-mail at cardress@aol.com, or visit www.futurecity.org. All interested
engineers will be put in touch with their area's regional coordinator.
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EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
Photographs of the first, second and third place 2001 Future City
Competition teams are available. Contact Donald Lehr at (212)
967-8200 or 74731.2172@compuserve.com.
IN BRIEF: The National Engineers Week Committee needs volunteer engineers from every field to give some of their time this fall and winter to introduce local young people at middle schools across the nation to a career in engineering through the National Engineers Week Future City CompetitionTM. Since its founding in 1992, this educational program has made engineering come alive for tens of thousands of students. For more information on becoming a volunteer mentor, contact Carol Rieg, National Director, at (301) 977-6582, via e-mail at cardress@aol.com, or visit www.futurecity.org. Interested engineers will be put in touch with their area's regional coordinator.
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