Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future Cities Finals

Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future Cities Finals Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future Cities Finals Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future City FinalsASME President-Elect J. Robert Sims (far left), ASME Past President Marc Goldsmith (second from left) and ASME President Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb (far right) with the kollektiv from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, winners of the ASME Best Futuristic City Award.A team of middle-school students from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language in Huntsville, Ala., were awarded the ASME Best Futuristic City Award at the Future City Competition National Finals, which was during Engineers Week last month in Washington, D.C. ASME President-Elect J. Robert Sims (far left), ASME Past President Marc Goldsmith (second from left) and ASME President Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb (far right) with the team from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, winners of the ASME Best Futuristic City Award.T he annual Future City Competition challenges sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, working with a teacher and an engineering mentor, to devise, design and build cities of the future. Using SimCity software to plan their cities, the students then build tabletop scale models of their concepts using recycled materials and present their ideas before a panel of judges at regional Future City Competitions held in January. Winners of the regional contests then advance to the National Finals in February.The ASME Best Futuristic City Award recognizes the use of futuristic engineering concepts into citys communications, energy, or transportation systems. The students from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, who named their team the Geeksters, won the ASME award for their Future City entry Facil Mudando (Spanish for easy moving), where the communitys residents are shuttled around on high-speed monorails and freight is shipped using dirigibles or underground tube systems.For more infor mation on the Future City Competition, or to view the complete list of winners, visit http//futurecity.org/awards.