Three Area Schools Top Michigan Region Future City Competition Sponsored by Ford and ESD The Engineering Society

    SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Feb. 8 Hundreds of middle school
students from across southeastern Michigan participated in the Michigan Region
Future City Competition(TM) held on Tuesday, January 30 at the Spirit of Ford
in Dearborn, Michigan, made possible by Ford Motor Company and sponsored by
ESD The Engineering Society.
    Three area schools took top honors in the competition.  St. John Lutheran
School in Rochester placed first; Webb Junior High School in Ferndale took
second; and Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor finished third.  Runners up
were Mt. Hope Lutheran School in Allen Park and Derby Middle School in
Birmingham.  The five schools that received honorable mentions were Academy of
the Sacred Heart, Rochester; Ann Arbor Open; Grand Blanc Middle School; Helen
Keller Middle School, Royal Oak; and Holy Family Regional School, Rochester.
In addition, corporate sponsors and societies presented ten special awards.
    The competition requires students to create, first on the computer using
SimCity 2000 software, and then in large 3-dimensional scale models, their
version of the city of tomorrow.  The students work with engineer mentors who
help guide them through the rigors of building a functioning city.  Students
tackle transportation, communication, energy needs, budgets and other
challenges.  The students then present and expound upon their cities to
engineer judges at the competition.
    The St. John Lutheran team, along with winners of 20 other regional
competitions across the U.S., will travel to Washington, DC to participate in
the national competition held during National Engineer's Week, February 18-24,
2001.  Approximately 26,000 students from schools nationwide participate in
the competition.
    The winning city in the Michigan Region Competition, "E-Detroit 2050", was
designed by the team of 7th and 8th graders from St. John Lutheran School.
E-Detroit 2050 advances the city of Detroit into the year 2050.  The students
describe the city as a center of technology with highly developed electronics,
communication and automation.  Still the world's capital in the automobile
industry, E-Detroit contains the world's two tallest buildings, a beautiful
waterfront park and the largest mall in America.  E-Detroit also received a
special award for Best Transportation, sponsored by Ford Motor Company.  For
more information, contact Geraldine Robak at 248-355-2910, ext. 117.
    Founded in 1895, as the Association of Graduate Engineers of the
University of Michigan, ESD The Engineering Society has evolved into the
nation's largest multi-disciplinary engineering and scientific society of its
kind.  With more than 6,000 members throughout the Great Lakes Region, ESD
unites engineers, scientists, architects and those in related technical
fields.  The Society's programs and services are dedicated to the enhancement
of professional development, the advancement of technology and the promotion
of the engineering and scientific professions, thereby enabling positive
contributions to society.  For membership information or program registration,
visit the ESD website at http://www.esd.org or call 800-659-2559.