The team competed this morning in D.C. for the national title, which it won in 2010.

Davidson IB Middle School's North Carolina champion Future City team posed for a picture in January. From left: adviser Ruth Swallow, Juan Williams, competition co-coordinator Chris Kreider of NCDOT, Nick Macri, Jimmy Haberburger, Anika Agarwal, Brandon Lang, coach Jay Hager, Emma Boraks, Dane Horna, Sharad Wertheimer, and state co-coordinator David Simpson. Not pictured: Ian Magee. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

Updated 4:20 p.m.
Davidson IB Middle School’s Future City team wasn’t able to defend its 2010 title, but the group of eighth graders finished as the third best in the U.S.

Awards were announced just after noon at the competition, at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

With a presentation Monday, the Davidson team qualified for a chance to defend its crown. The team was picked as one of five finalists.

The team’s three presenters – Sharad Wertheimer, Emma Boraks and Nic Macri -  was the fourth of the top five to give its final-round presentation to judges just before noon, and winners were announced not long after.

The team is coached by science teacher Jay Hager, who had help from a carload of advisers.

This year’s winning Future City was Ville L’espoir, created by students from Our Lady Help of Christians School, in Abington, Pa., near Philadelphia. That city was designed to help people with Type II Diabetes. A team from Valley Middle School in Oakland, N.J., got second place.  (See the Future City press release below.)

This was Davidson IB Middle’s last appearance in the Future City competition, at least under its current name. Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools is closing the school amid budget troubles. Next year, it will become a program within Alexander Middle School in Huntersville.

‘WE MET OUR GOAL’

Davidson IB team members were excited about their third-place finish, which met a goal set when they began preparing for the competition last summer.

“We got third in the nation, that’s not bad,” Sharad said. “When we started, Mr. Hager asked us how far we wanted him to push us – state winner or stuff like that. We said top five, and we made our goal.”

Said Mr. Hager: “It went fantastic. It was exciting to hear you’re in the top five. … We finished in the money, which counts.”

The third place finish earned the school a $2,000 scholarship for its technology program, sponsored by IEEE-USA.  The team also won one of 20 special awards – for aerospace technology.

Cameron Swallow, a Davidson IB teacher and team adviser, said in text message shortly after the winner were announced: “They did very well and should be proud.”

FUTURE CITY: SEIKI

Davidson IB’s entry, Seiki, is a “future city” in Japan that incorporates emerging or future technologies in energy, transportation, agriculture, and addressed this year’s competition theme, health care. The team of eighth graders imagined a health information system that included wrist-worn health monitors and a city-wide health monitoring network. The team of eighth graders also incorporated an imagined future research colony on Mars.

The theme of this year’s competition was “Providing a Reliable and Effective Health Care System That Improves a Sick, Injured or Disabled Patient’s Quality of Life and Comfort.” The contest required writing a research essay, designing a 3-D model and developing a computer simulation.

Mr. Hager said the Davidson team faced tough competition. Both the New Jersey and Philadelphia teams have had numerous Top 5 finishes over the past 15 years, he said.

“We would like to make a habit of this, we’ll see,” he said.

On Jan. 15 , Davidson IB won the North Carolina title for the fourth year in a row and earned the trip to Washington. The national championship is part of National Engineers Week and included teams from about 35 states. They were regional winners in a competition that started with more than 1,000 teams from middle schools across the country.

RELATED LINKS

More information: www.futurecity.org.

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PRESS RELEASE

PHILADELPHIA’S OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS SCHOOL
WINS GRAND PRIZE AT 2011 NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK
FUTURE CITY COMPETITION

Winners Earn Trip to Space Camp, Courtesy of Bentley Systems

WASHINGTON, February 22, 2011 – A city of the future- Ville L’espoir – engineered by students from Our Lady Help of Christians School, in Abington, PA (Philadelphia region) has won the grand prize at the 2011 National Engineers Week Future City Competition. The students – Elizabeth DeMarshall, 13, Alexandra Ryan, 14 and Matthew Wilkinson, 14, – teamed up with their teacher Jane H. Ring and volunteer mentor, Michael T. DiCamillo, an engineer with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia, PA, to create a city focused on helping people with Type II Diabetes.
Teams from 35 middle schools nationwide, winners of regional competitions in January, participated in the Future City National Finals, February 18-22 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
The grand prize winners receive a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, provided by National Finals host Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world. Bentley also is providing a 10-seat academic suite of engineering software for each school of the top three teams. Shell is also a national sponsor for the competition.

Second place went to the team from Valley Middle School in Oakland, New Jersey for their Future City, which they titled Eleebana Wahan. The team is comprised of students: Sidney Anderson, 14, Benjamin Clauss, 14 and Jeevan Jeyabalan 13, teacher Judith Vihonski and mentor Robert Akovity of Integrated Building Controls in Dayton, NJ. Valley Middle School receives a $5,000 scholarship for its technology program, sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).

Davidson IB Middle School in Davidson, North Carolina took third place honors for their Future City Seiki. The team is comprised of Nicholas Macri,13 and Emma Boraks 13, Sharad Wertheimer 13, teacher Jay D. Hager and mentor Dane Horna of S&ME Incorporated in Charlotte, NC. Davidson Middle School receives a $2,000 scholarship for that school’s technology program, sponsored by IEEE-USA.

Honorable mentions went to Mohave Middle School in Scottsdale, Arizona (Fourth Place) and to St. John Lutheran in Rochester, Michigan (Fifth Place).

“We did it!” was the immediate reaction of Matthew Wilkinson, from the grand prize winning team. “Before the competition, when I heard the word engineer, the first thing I thought of was train engineer. After Future City, I realize now how all the infrastructure in a city is done by people working together. I learned to be a part of that. Future City will change how I proceed in life with my career choice and how I think about how people work in teams together.”

“I’ve been doing this 15 years and it gets more exciting – and competitive – every year,” said winning teacher Jane Ring.. “To win this year is a tremendous and gratifying experience.”

“I am always amazed at the ability of these young students to grasp adult concepts and to turn them around them the way they do,” added winning mentor Michael DiCamillo. “This is a great professional experience and one that I would recommend to any and all of my colleagues.”

Since last fall, more than 33,000 students from 1,000 middle schools in 35 regions across the country have participated in the 19th Annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition. In January, each region held qualifying competitions to select the team to represent it in the Future City Competition National Finals.

Sponsored by the nation’s professional engineering community, Future City, one of the nation’s largest engineering education programs and among the most popular, aims to stir interest in science, technology, engineering and math among young people. Students must conduct research for an essay on a pressing social need. This year’s theme, “Providing a Reliable and Effective Health Care Product or System That Improves a Sick, Injured or Disabled Patient’s Quality of Life and Comfort” asks students to envision the medical centers, clinics and hospitals of the future. Students will also propose, design and develop the supporting infrastructure – both virtual and physical – that would be integral to those facilities. They will detail the development of systems to support diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and rehabilitation and they will adhere to strict technical and ethical standards.

Students work in teams under the guidance of a teacher and a volunteer engineer mentor to design and build a city of tomorrow. They create cities on computers using the SimCity 4 Deluxe software and then build three-dimensional, tabletop models to scale. To ensure a level playing field, models must use recycled materials and can cost no more than $100 to build. Students also write brief narratives describing their city and must present and defend their designs at the competition before a panel of engineer judges who test the depth of the teams’ knowledge. This year, for the first time, sixth graders were invited to join seventh and eighth grade students in the competition.

For more information on the Future City Competition, visit www.futurecity.org.

About Future City Competition
The 19th Annual Future City Competition, for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, is held from September, 2010 through February, 2011. The National Future City Competition is sponsored in part by National Engineers Week Foundation, a consortium of professional and technical societies and major U.S. corporations. Major funding comes from Bentley Systems, Incorporated and Shell.

About Engineers Week

The National Engineers Week Foundation, a formal coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies, is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society. Founded in 1951, it is among the oldest of America’s professional outreach efforts. Co-chairs for 2011 are Raytheon and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

For more information, visit www.eweek.org.

In addition to the winning teams, 20 Special Awards, sponsored by numerous engineering societies and organizations, were presented at a ceremony later in the afternoon.