[00:00.30]
[00:01.00]The annual contest aims to direct young people toward careers in science and technology.
[00:05.75]It is sponsored by a consortium of professional and technical societies and some major U.S. corporations.
[00:11.65]The students-built tabletop scale models of their designs using recycled materials, costing no more than $100.
[00:18.36]The teams also had to write essays about their solutions,
[00:21.61]explain their ideas to the crowd and answer the questions asked by a six-member expert panel.
[00:27.19]Gregory Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems Incorporated, one of the competition's major sponsors,
[00:32.69]said this year’s theme was ’urban transportation’ -- an increasingly important issue for the world's cities.
[00:38.64]“We sort of have the first generation, I think now, in the United States,
[00:41.73]who are not committed to having a car to be a part of their life,”
[00:44.95]Eighth-graders from the southern state of Georgia -- David Straub, Katherine Barri and Rebecca North
[00:49.20]-- envisioned their city far into the future.
[00:51.66]David said they predicted that public transport would be effortless and eco-friendly.
[00:56.26]“It’s a new system that focuses, has a focus on magnetic frequency,
[00:59.88]which will allow people to levitate and float along the magnetic fields,”
[01:03.69]Leila Mezza, Oha Hassan and Mousa Seid from Houston, Texas,
[01:08.32]imagined a city in Brazil in 2084, with transport relying on electric cars.
[01:13.88]“These garages have photovoltaic cells
[01:16.66]and whenever our cars are parked over here, they get their energy to drive later on,"
[01:21.20]Bentley said the Future City competition, now in its 22nd year, is deliberately focused on young teens.
[01:28.11]“Because at that age in the United States, they have to elect the math courses, the advanced math courses.
[01:33.59]If they don’t at that age, they will never be an engineer,”
[01:36.66]The grand prize of $7,500 went to St. John Lutheran School in Michigan.
[01:41.77]The team members won a trip to U.S. Space Camp.
[01:44.57]Even if they didn't win, the experience of working on an engineering project
[01:48.19]has encouraged many of the kids to think about a career in science and technology.
[01:52.72]One of them is Eric Swyler from New Mexico, who said,
[01:55.29]“I plan to become a scientist of some kind, but I’m not sure exactly what kind.”
[02:00.48]Swyler does not have to worry.
[02:02.56]He has plenty of time to decide.
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