April 2014

NSPE TODAY
Michigan Team Wins Future City

NSPE PRESIDENT ROBERT GREEN, P.E., F.NSPE, AND NSPE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MARK GOLDEN LISTEN TO FUTURE CITY COMPETITORS DESCRIBE THEIR PROJECT.

St. John Lutheran School in Rochester, Michigan, won this year’s national Future City Competition for creating a city that took a holistic approach to transportation. The students’ goal was to make transportation flexible, accessible, integrated, and renewable—FAIR, which when translated into Chinese is the city’s name, Gongping.

This year’s competition, held in Washington, DC, was entitled “Tomorrow’s Transit: Design a Way to Move People in and Around Your City.” On February 17, NSPE Executive Director Mark Golden and NSPE President Robert Green, P.E., F.NSPE, judged projects for the NSPE Special Award. The award challenges students to explain how they incorporated engineering ethics into their work and was won by Woodside Middle School from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

“It creates a larger sense of awareness about licensure,” said Golden of the award.

Golden also recognized the incredible learning opportunity that Future City presents for kids: “It’s deeper than the right answer. They learn how engineering impacts the environment, weather, natural resources—there are no simple solutions.”

The St. John Lutheran School team, made up of Rebecca Oleskie, Paul Rosa, and Justin Judd, put in the equivalent of 15 work weeks researching how to get all the necessary components in one system. “It’s awesome to put over 600 hours of work into this project and to see it pay off,” Justin said.

GONGPING, THE 2014 FUTURE CITY WINNER, WAS DESIGNED AND BUILT BY THE ST. JOHN LUTHERAN SCHOOL FROM ROCHESTER, MICHIGAN.

As the winners, St. John Lutheran School received a $7,500 scholarship for its STEM program, provided by Bentley Systems. The students also each won a trip to US Space Camp in Alabama.

Second place went to last year’s champions, Valley Middle School from Oakland, New Jersey, for their city Whenua Aotearoa. Valley Middle School received a $5,000 scholarship for its STEM program, provided by NSPE. HEAR Rockwall, a home school from Rockwall, Texas, took third place for their city Eisenhower. They earned a $2,000 scholarship for their school’s STEM program, sponsored by IEEE-USA.

In addition, there were two honorable mentions: Southwest Middle School from Lawrence, Kansas, and Girl Scout Troop #2225 from Salida, California.

Learn more at www.discovere.org and www.futurecity.org.