by Amy Gao, CH2M HILL Water Engineer
Engineers Week (EWeek) aims to increase public understanding of engineering as well as pre-college interest and enthusiasm in the profession. This year, Engineers Week will take place February 19-25, 2012. CH2M HILL has supported EWeek since 1997 as the firm’s flagship science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education outreach program. Each February, hundreds of employees from CH2M HILL offices across North America volunteer their time to serve as mentors, teachers, and judges in a variety of activities, including engineering competitions, technology and science fairs, classroom presentations, hands-on activities, and project site visits.
The National Engineers Week Future City Competition™ is a non-profit national competition sponsored by the engineering community to promote technological literacy and engineering to middle school students. Students are required to design a city on the computer using the SIM City software, write an essay and abstract about the city, and build a scale model of the city to be presented to a panel of engineer judges on the day of the competition.
The mentoring program is run by the NYC section of the The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). As a mentor, I provided advice, guidance, and technical assistance as the students work on the various project components. I met with the students every month to talk about various aspects of engineering. These topics include what engineers do to plan and improve cities, including transportation, power supply, water supply, environmental considerations, manufacturing, etc. In between visits, I emailed research ideas or other helpful tips to help them model their future city.
On my first visit, I was completely shocked at the neighborhood that the school was in. It did not seem like a safe place to have a school. When I arrived at the school, I was greeted by the 6th and the 7th grade teachers, who volunteered their time after school for the competition. I had a PowerPoint presentation prepared for the twenty 7th and 8th grade students, but realized that they did not have a projector. Nonetheless, the students were still very enthusiastic about the competition. They were all prepared with the pros and cons of alternative energies (as it was the homework I had assigned them).
Following that visit, I thought it would be a great idea for the students to come to the office for our monthly meetings. It would be a great opportunity for them to visit an engineering office and meet more engineers. Since the students had narrowed down their alternative energy source to water energy on which their city would run, I thought that they could learn about how water turbines work. Using a soda can, pencil, paper and a push pin, each student built a movable water turbine model. At the end of each visit, the students and teachers were always so thankful for my help. It was inspiring to learn that one male student gave up on being on the basketball team at school to be part of the engineering team for the competition.
On the visit prior to the competition, the students came to the office to give a practice presentation. They were nervous about presenting, so I suggested adding a creative element. One student ended up writing a poem to introduce their city to the judges:
Future City, Future City
Where do you lie?
In the distance across the clear sky
Your call will be answered in a style of grace beyond the imaginations of today’s engineers.
Future City with flying cars, spaceships that take humans to Mars.
The fastest transportation is the best motivation.
Buildings are taller and greener.
Water conservation and reuse.
Smart grid infrastructure are just what you need
With us on your side you will achieve sustainable environmental development that will be beyond your ancestors wildest dreams.
The requirements for the project included that the models had to be made from all recycled material. The students did not use any of the $100 budget. Instead, they made the houses out of school milk cartons, pizza boxes, and other recycled materials. Their city was called “The New City,” a futuristic city on an island with flying cars, stacks that filtered the air, and entirely powered by water turbines. The students won the AECOM Most Sustainable Water Use Award for their innovative design using water turbines to harvest energy from the ocean to power the entire city.
Amy Gao is a Water Engineer in CH2M HILL’s New York City Office. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and B.S. in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University. She is an active participant with the American Water Works Association, the Water Environment Federation, and the Society of Women Engineers.
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