Three 13-year olds Receive Top Honours February 21, 2008
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On Wednesday, for three teenagers, almost a year of work has paid off. For it was on Wednesday that the 2008 National Engineers Week Future City Competition had a winner. Students from Heritage Middle School, located in Westerville, Ohio won the final competition. The winning team was the winner of the Ohio competition in early January.
The winning team consisted of: Jeremy Boyd, Glen Gainer and Emma Henderson, and Jeremy Boyd. The adults are: teacher Debra Pellington, and volunteer mentor, Ted Beidler, P.E.
The team was very excited to win the competition. And the adults both agreed that winning was a huge success for the central Ohio city of Westerville. “These kids have worked very hard to get to this point. For all of their hard work, it’s wonderful to finish in first place,” said someone from Ohio sitting in the audience.
This year Future City National Finals teams represented public, private, parochial and home schools. 54 boys and 53 girls made up the participators over the 3 day event. The competition tries to challenge these young eager minds. It pushes them to think outside of the box and put much attention on striving to do their best. The hope is that students become more energized about science, technology, and mathematics. With this a strong framework for a much larger qualified engineering workforce become the long-term goal.
The Future City press release had this to say about one of their sponsors remarks:
“…John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company, which provides funding to nine regional competitions in addition to the National Finals, says the forward thinking the competition generates benefits the entire profession. “Shell is pleased to support Future City because it encourages achievement in technology and engineering at an early age,” said Hofmeister. “Future City provides Shell an opportunity to identify promising young students. As Shell continues to seek talent in the areas of math and science, we will continue to look to proven programs such as Future City to help us connect with students with those necessary skills.”
The Future City National Finals is hosted by Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading engineering software company, and chair of the competition’s Leadership Council. Bentley also provides the first prize for the Heritage team – a trip to US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. All regional winning teams received an all-expense-paid trip to Washington for the National Finals. Future City is sponsored in part by the National Engineers Week Foundation, a coalition comprising more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Engineers Week 2008, February 17-23, is co-chaired by the IBM and the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA). Shell Oil Company is a major contributor to the Future City National Finals and a primary funder of nine regional competitions. The 2008 Essay sponsor is The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Carol Rieg, Future City National Director, believes embracing advanced engineering concepts underscores the rigors of the program as well as the tenacity of the students. She added, “No matter what we give these young people, they consistently rise to the challenge.”
Other finishes were:
* Second Place - Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York
* Third Place - Our Lady Help of Christians School in Abington, Pennsylvania.
* Fourth Place - Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
* Fifth Place - Queen of Angels Catholic School in Roswell, Georgia.
