Engineer Volunteers Needed To Help Students Build Future Cities
 . . .  And Maybe Become Engineers Themselves 

In the National Engineers Week Future City Competition^™, middle school students create cities of tomorrow. Engineer mentors who volunteer in this increasingly popular program, however, say what's really being created are the engineers of tomorrow. 

Now entering its eleventh year, the Future City Competition invites seventh- and eighth-graders to design cities on computers and in three-dimensional models. Guiding the students are teachers and local volunteers from every engineering discipline. The immediate goal is to design a future city, but engineers have discovered the program also introduces many young people to the profession of engineering, a career they otherwise may never have considered.

It's much more than theory. The competition's organizers say they are beginning to see firsthand evidence of former Future City participants now enrolled in college engineering programs.

The boost comes at a most critical time in the engineering profession. While demand for engineers is expected to continue to rise, the amount of qualified workers is barely keeping pace.

In 2001-02, more than 30,000 students from 950 schools in 29 regions around the United States participated in the Future City Competition; 31 regions are expected to participate in 2002-03. Students start designing their cities at the beginning of the school year, working during and after school and through holidays breaks. While Future City was once primarily an extracurricular activity, increasingly schools find it a perfect fit for math, science and technology courses. 

Regional competitions are held in January. First place teams (including the engineer mentor) win all-expense paid trips to Washington, D.C., for national finals during National Engineers Week, February 16-22, 2003. (National Engineers Week is always held around the birthday of George Washington, who, as a surveyor, is considered the country's first engineer.) Grand prize there is a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. National Engineers Week 2003 is co-chaired by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and Lockheed Martin.

Engineer mentors guide the students from beginning to end, offering solutions to the problems as they crop up, which can happen with alarming frequency without proper precautions. Build a factory and employment rises, boosting tax revenues. That same factory, however, may increase pollution, forcing people to move away, thus decreasing tax revenues. By sharing real world experience with the young people, engineers provide insights that help students face such challenges and resolve them.

That encouragement often plants the seed of interest among students in problem solving, the heart and soul of engineering. 

So, when engineers give a few hours a week to the Future City Competition, they are doing more than advising youngsters on how to increase energy production or plan mass transit systems. They are also laying a foundation that could prove crucial in ensuring the strength of their profession, as well as the health and well being of a core sector of American industry. 

For more information, contact Carol Rieg, National Director, at (877) 636-9578, via e-mail at cardress@aol.com, or visit www.futurecity.org. All interested engineers will be put in touch with their area's regional coordinator.

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