Future City Competition is on at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Byline: Joe Grundle

Sometimes it's easy to forget, but for better or worse, children are the future.

Considering the extensive advances in technology made in the last 30 years alone and that are sure to continue, it's a fact impossible to deny.

With that in mind, the professional engineering community is sponsoring the 2007 National Engineers Future City Competition, which asks tens of thousands of middle school students across the country to design and build a city of tomorrow, as well as write essays on a pressing social need.

"The competition gives kids a lot of confidence and a chance to shine and be in the spotlight," said Karla Peterson, a civil engineer for the state of Minnesota's Department of Health and a Future City regional co-coordinator. "It's fun to see their creativity."

The students first use SimCity 3000 software to create their city, then build a three-dimensional scale model, write a brief abstract describing their city and defend their design before a panel of engineer judges.

The 2007 Future City essay's focus is on developing fuel cell systems that lead to power efficient, pollution-free cities.

Fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen from the air to generate an electrochemical reaction that produces electrical power and byproducts of heat and water. The automaker Hyundai predicts that fuel cell cars will capture 58 percent of the world market in 20 years.

"We thought it would be nice to incorporate fuel cells into the competition, as it's a topic on everyone's mind these days," Peterson said.

Future engineers

Just think, that seventh-grader down the street who plays music too loud and keeps the neighborhood up with late-night basketball games in the driveway could one day solve the world's energy problems.

"The kids come up with some pretty creative and out-of-the-box ideas," said Peterson, whose home state supplied the 2006 Future City champion, Chippewa Middle School. "If anything, they get professional engineers thinking about different things."

The essay...