Research shows natural disasters are on the rise worldwide. The year 2018 was the fourth warmest year on record dating to 1880, according to NASA, and the cost of natural disasters totaled $155 billion, according to The Washington Post. As part of the 2019 South Florida Future City Competition, hosted by the College of Engineering & Computing, groups of middle school students got to test their ideas on how cities can mitigate damage from these disasters.
Working with the theme, “Powering our Future!”, seven teams of middle school students from Miami-Dade and Broward counties designed power grids for future cities that can withstand and quickly recover from natural disasters. A power grid also referred to as an electric grid, is an interconnected network that delivers electricity from producers to consumers.
Participating students are required to complete five deliverables including a virtual city design, an essay, a scale model built entirely from recycled materials, a project plan and a presentation. This is the 17th year the college hosted the event, under the leadership of Osama Mohammed, associate dean of research and regional coordinator of the national competition.
The Future City Competition is a nationwide engineering education program. The competition encourages students, at a young age, to think outside of the box by applying math and science concepts to real-world issues. The students also research and propose engineering solutions, develop project management skills and learn how to collaborate in a team environment.
The seven participating teams shared their ideas with FIU News:
Canberra
The students also emphasized the importance of culture. “We wanted to keep a lot of Australia’s culture,” said Anjeli Hernandez. “For instance, we named the city’s hotel ‘Golden Wattle’ after the national plant of Australia.”
Cabana Beach
“Our main goal was to make this city green to decrease pollution by using wind turbines and solar panels,” said Anna Zhuk.
Clearwater
“I use idea-based teaching to get the team to start brainstorming and be creative when it comes to designing their project,” said Joe Green, STEM teacher. “It gives me hope to see these young women become aware of all the different types of engineering disciplines that they can, without a doubt, succeed in.”
Acadiana
“Our project has a lot of unique aspects including travel,” said Nicolas Rodriguez. “The main form of transit is a train that travels at supersonic speed. It works like a vacuum.” Acadiana was the winning team of the South Florida Future City Competition.
Graham-Ville
“The idea that we can get creative and create a city that maybe one day we can physically recreate in the future is very exhilarating,” said Michelle Mendez.
Novade
“One of the most unique things of our city is the vertical farming,” said Sofia Picard. “The excess crops turn into methane gas which is then converted into electrical engineering to power the entire city.”
Reflections
In most modern-day cities, less than 10 percent of the roads are pedestrian friendly. But in Reflections, 75 percent of the roads are reserved for pedestrians and electric bikes. Nautilus’ middle school created the city, located in Ireland above two tectonic plates – pieces of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle. The students built an earthquake simulator for train its citizens in what to do in the event of an earthquake.
When asked about their experience in the Future City Competition, student Zak Djahed answered, “The engineering aspect was my favorite part of this. Just making the model was very exciting.”