| Posted: January 24, 2008 |
Teams face off at NASA's Ames in Future City Competition |
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(Nanowerk News) The bright and fertile minds of middle school students across the country have cultivated their visions of what future cities must look like in order to support humankind's growing infrastructure needs. Soon they will put their concepts to the test by participating in the 16th annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition.
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The focus of this year's competition is nanotechnology. More than 30,000 students from 1,000 schools in 40 regions in the United States are participating in the competition. Students have developed concepts for the practical application of built-in nanotechnologies to monitor parts of a city's infrastructure. NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will host the Northern California regional competition on Saturday, Jan. 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PST. Admission is free, and open to the public.
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Teams of students, with their teacher and engineer mentors, create their future city digitally using SimCity 3000 software. They then transform their ideas into reality by sculpting a large table-top model using recycled materials costing no more than $100. Each team will be judged for their models, an essay, and a presentation defending their approach to resolving monitoring issues for tomorrow's cities using nanotechnology.
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NASA plays a significant role in providing free public access to educational programs and materials to foster passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics in today's youth. For more information about the National Engineers Week Future City Competitions across the country, visit:
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http://www.futurecity.org
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More information on the NASA's education programs, visit: http://education.nasa.gov
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