The Regional Finals will be this Saturday at the Cabral Center (aka the John D. O'Bryant Building or 40 Leon St.)  Note - Eon Street is a one-way from Forsyth St., so take Huintington Ave to Forsyth, then a right onto Greenleaf, which turns into Leon.  After you drop off the model, follow to the end of Leon, take a left onto Ruggles and turn left onto Columbus Ave.  You can park in the Renaissance Garage -- see map.

Here is a link to the campus map: http://www.northeastern.edu/neuhome/aboutnortheastern/maps.html

There are 19 teams this year, and to have the day run smoothly, we are doing things a little different than in the past.

There will be two rounds.  In the first round everyone will be judged, and then we will narrow the selection to the top three and we will have them present on stage to all of us.  As in the past, the presentations in both rounds will be limited to 7 minutes followed by a Q&A session of up to 8 minutes.  The format for both rounds is the same.

Here is the schedule:

8:30am – 9:30am: School Team Registration

9:00am – 9:30am: Judges’ Orientation

9:30am – 12:15pm: First Round of Judging

12:15pm – 12:40pm: Lunch

12:40pm – 1:00pm: Announcement of Top 3 teams

1:00pm – 2:00pm: Top 3 Teams Re-present to everyone with Q&A

2:00pm – 2:20pm: Break

2:20pm – 2:40pm: Announcement of New England National Representative, runner –ups, and awarding of Special Prizes

The first round of judging will proceed as follows:

9:30 to 9:50 - Rye NH's Clear Sky City, Dennis-Yarmouth's Naturopolis, and Umana's Carfellas

9:50 to 10:10 - Concord's Mars, Dennis-Yarmouth's Successville, and Umana's Citaly

10:10 to 10:30 - Bancroft School's Peraditi, Dennis-Yarmouth's Supercity, and Umana's Tropical Surf

10:30 to 10:50 - Birchland Park's Sky City, Girls Inc of Lynn's Cocoa Beans Island and Hingham Middle School's Gondor

10:50 to 11:10 - G.A.M.E.S. of Chelsea's Acropolis of Hope, Medford's Boys and Girls Club, and Mohawk Trail Regional's New Wethering

11:10 to 11:30 - Pioneer Charter School of Science's Enolia 2.0,  and Tenney Middle School's City of Tenney

11:30 to 11:50 - Wilson Middle School's Bogunquit, and Salem Cyberspace's Magnaduratopia.

There will be numerous special awards this year, as follows:

Mathcad Award for Outstanding Use of Detail in the City Narrative

Massachusetts General Hospital Award for Best Medical Facilities

Northeastern University Award for Best Educational Facilities

AECOM Award for Most Innovative Concept

Parsons Brinckerhoff Award for Most Environmentally Friendly City

Greenman-Pedersen Award for Most Family Friendly City

New England Bridge Contractors Award for the Best Moving Part

These will be awarded at the end of the day, prior to announcing the National Finalist and runners-up.