January 26, 2015

Expand
Close
Expand
Close

This past Saturday (January 24th) a team from St. Hubert Catholic School in Hoffman Estates, IL was one of 34 teams participating in the 22nd Annual 'Future City' Competition that was held at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Future City competition introduces 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to engineering challenges and this year's task was to determine how to sustain a city of 75,000 people with one vegetable and one protein. St. Hubert students, who were mentored by Epstein's chief bridge engineer, Peter Dombrowski, PE, SE, selected corn and cattle to sustain Cyber City. The competition consisted of five scored components which included: Developing a virtual city using the software game Sim City; Writing both a thousand word essay; A five hundred word narrative; Constructing a scaled physical model with a moving part; And a final presentation by three students. Professional engineers judge the Future City projects with the winning teams moving on to Washington DC for a National competition. (As a side note, Epsteiner Jay Masi, EIT, served as one of the judges for this event)

This year's St. Hubert team did not advance to Nationals, but they did secure an award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for "Best Energy or Environmental Design." The presenting team on January 24, 2015 consisted of Maile Fidale, Isabella Eby, and Johnny Waity with Mrs. Kelly O'Hara and Mr. Matthew Jasper acting as teacher moderators.

Congratulations go out the St. Hubert team for a job well done as well as special thanks to Pete for playing such a critical mentoring role in helping inspire our next generation of engineers! Additionally, kudos to Jay in taking personal time off to volunteer and help judge this very inspiring program.

For additional information on the Future City program visit their website at www.futurecity.org/illinois-chicago