Call for Mentors for Illinois 2015 Future City® Competition
Chicago - As part of the 2015 National Future City® Competition over 40,000 middle schoolers from about 1,350 schools across the United States will be tasked with designing a city with its own food resources under the concept of "Feeding Future Cites." There are 37 regions involved in the competition nationwide. The State of Illinois Regional Regional competition is open to sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Teams registered through October 31, 2014. The Illinois Regional Committee is currently seeking engineering professionals to serve as team mentors to work with students while their preparing their entries over the next few months.
Mentors are asked to coach their teams for the statewide competition which requires meeting about once per month with the team at their school for the next three months. See our Google Map with registered schools to date that are seeking a mentor. The registered schools list continues to change and grow each day-check frequently, or call us to find a school nearest you. For more details and to enroll as a mentor, click here .
During the Future City® Competition, students work as a team to design a virtual city and solutions using SimCity™ software. Over the next three months, the students research the defined city wide issue and write an essay with their findings and solutions. The team builds a tabletop scale model of their city using recycled materials with a budget no greater than $100 and they write a brief narrative promoting their city. All teams have the same budget and have access to the software.
On Jan. 24, 2015, student teams will present their version of the future to a panel of judges at the Regional Competition held at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After the judging, awards will be presented in the afternoon. The public is invited to attend the competition and show for free.
"This is the 22nd year of conducting this regional competition. This year's competition requires students to create a vision for the future regarding "Feeding Future Cites." It is an interesting topic and more critical as the world's population continues to grow," said Future City® Competition Regional Coordinator Don Wittmer, P.E., Transportation Manager with HNTB.
The winning team from the Illinois region will receive a fully paid round-trip, travel and hotel accommodations, to compete in the National Finals held in Washington, DC on Feb. 22-28, 2015 during National Engineers Week. The four-day national competition will result in one team receiving the top national prize of a trip to U.S. Space Camp for one week stay in Huntsville, AL and $7,500 for the organization's STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program. The top prize is awarded by Bentley Systems, Inc.
Four additional prizes are awarded at the national competition. The first runner-up is awarded a $5,000 prize provided by National Society of Professional Engineers. The second runner-up is awarded a $2,000 prize provided by IEEE-USA. Two honorable mention prizes are awarded in the amount of $750 each provided by the Ohio University and CH2MHill. All team members receive a certificate of participation.
"The Regional Competition brings together innovative students from Chicago and throughout Illinois. We are always surprised by their creativity and excitement," stated Matthew A. Miller,P.E. with HNTB.
The top teams from the region will share their transformative ideas at the Annual Chicago Engineers Benefit on Feb. 27, 2015.
Begun in 1992, the Future City® Competition is part of the rich history of DiscoverE. For more information about Future City®, visit www.futurecity.org.
We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support. Our Gold Sponsors are: American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE) Illinois Section, ASCE- UIC Student Chapter, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Golden Square LLC, and HNTB. Our Silver sponsors are: CivCon Services, Perkins and Will, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, Inc. Our Bronze Sponsors are: American Concrete Institute-Illinois Chapter, Associated Steel Erectors, Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd., Civil Tech, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates and Weldy/Lamont Associates, Ltd.
If you have questions, contact Future City® Regional Coordinator Don Wittmer, P.E., HNTB at [email protected] or Matthew Miller, P.E. , HNTB, at [email protected].
