Nebraska Section is Proud of Its Future City Winners

The Mission Middle School Team from Bellevue, Nebraska won first place in the 2003 National Engineers Week Future City Competition in Washington, D.C. Megan Horton, Casey Laski and Mitchell Laski, comprised the eighth grade team that created and built “Candeo Glacia”, a model city on the coast of South Carolina. (The name Candeo Glacia means “glowing ice,” referring to hydrogen fuel extracted from the underwater methane deposits.)

The Mission team won both local and regional competitions to become one of 29 teams to compete at the finals in Washington D.C. during National Engineers Week, February 16-22, 2003. Their impressive concept, computer model, constructed model, written abstract and oral explanations before judges resulted in a national championship. More than 30,000 7th and 8th graders from more than 1,000 schools participated in the contest nationwide. The goal of the competition is to expose and educate middle school students about various aspects of engineering.

Lt. Commander Freddie Bazen, a U.S. Navy engineer based at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, and Bellevue faculty sponsor, Susan Hester, gave advice and assisted the team in preparing for the competition. The competition challenges students to create a computer model and large 3-D scale model, write an essay about how biotechnology can be used to solve pollution problems, and develop an abstract describing the city and its services. The team had to explain aspects of Candeo Glacia to judges who asked team members about any and all aspects of their model city.

The ASCE Nebraska Section (NE-ASCE) sponsored the local competition and invited the team to present their winning city at the Section’s monthly meeting on April 24 in Omaha. The meeting attendees were very impressed with the team’s presentation, the scale model and the technical knowledge the team possessed of their city’s systems when asked some rather difficult questions by the engineers.

Joe Waxse, P.E., Past President of NE-ASCE, and Future City judge at the local competition, said, “the Candeo Glacia team put together the most impressive Future City presentation I've seen in the six years I've judged the competition. The concepts they developed were actually quite believable as to where our society may be 10 years from now. They obviously excelled in their research and were stimulated well by their team mentor and educator. Add countless hours of preparation and practice with a degree of commitment and professionalism deserving emulation by us all, and you've got a real National Champion! It makes me proud to be involved in Future City and excited about next year's competition. Congratulations to the team, parents, educators and NE-ASCE Future City organizers.”

As a first place reward, the team members will receive a trip to Huntsville, Alabama, to attend a one-week U.S. Space Camp.

The Mission Middle School Team with Candeo Glacia, the winning entry in the 2003 National Engineers Week Future City Competition held in Washington, D.C.  Here, the team presents their city to NE-ASCE at the April, 2003 meeting in Omaha.  From left,  Faculty Sponsor Susan Hester,  Casey Laski,  Megan Horton,  Mitchell Laski, Engineer Mentor Lt. Commander Freddie Bazen, and NE-ASCE President Brad Levich.