Best Use of Aerospace Technology, sponsored by The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) – National Capital Section (NCS):
(By Bruce Cranford)
WASHINGTON , February 21, 2007 – A city of the future – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) – National Capital Section (NCS), made a Special Award for the Best Use of Aerospace Technology to the team from the Hubble Middile School, Chicago Region, Future City Name :Citta Sotto Ghiaccio, team membersThomas Samaritano, Peter Ericksen, and Jack Cavanaugh, with Teacher Sponsor Nina Koelpin, and Engineer Mentor William Kirkman. The AIAA NCS congratulates the team for their outstanding efforts. Mike Wooster, Chair of the NCS AIAA made the presentation at the awards luncheon. The Awards consisted of a savings bond for each student team member, and a plaque highlighting the award for each member of the team. The AIAA NCS judges for the Best Use of Aerospace Engineering were Henry Meadows, Germantown, MD, Edmund Habib, Derwood, MD, Michael McFarland, Ph.D., Orbital Sciences Corp. Dulles, VA, and Bruce Cranford, P.E., Potomac, MD
Teams from 35 middle schools nationwide, winners of regional competitions in January, participated in the Future City National Finals, February 17-22 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. 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 17-22, a consortium of more than 100 engineering societies and major corporations. For more information and a list of all the winners, visit http://www.futurecity.org/
Future City, in its 15th year, 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 TM 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. 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 students created detailed – often fantastic – cities of tomorrow that give intriguing insights to how young minds envision their future. At the same time, their bold designs and innovative concepts provide a refreshingly optimistic appreciation of how our nation can realistically deal with the many challenges facing its cities, including environmental disasters, crime, urban decay and urban sprawl.
Giving young people a glimpse into engineering is a key goal of Future City, says Carol Rieg, the program’s National Director. “Using SimCity and building the models are what catch the students’ attention,” says Rieg, who helped create the program. “Then they blossom into other aspects of Future City – why engineering is important, the need to plan, the challenges and responsibilities of running a city. They use what they know to solve real world problems and make the program their own.”