A couple of weeks ago, we talked about and previewed the Tech Experience at this year’s CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020. I pointed out that it will be focusing on three main topics—modern mobility, sustainability, and smart cities. Like I keep saying, you will not want to miss any part of the Tech Experience especially now that it just got a little better.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has announced a partnership with Future City, a project-based learning program where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. AEM is going to bring these students from across the country to ConExpo and specifically the Tech Experience. The middle schoolers will even get to show off their own designs and solutions for cities of the future.
Sara Feuling, AEM Director of Construction, said, “We are really excited to be partnering with Future City. Having been involved with the program in Wisconsin, it is truly impressive to see the projects these students put together, highlighting their ideas for a better, more sustainable future. We hope our attendees are just as impressed and maybe even inspired to get involved with their local region.”
According to AEM:
Future City is one of the nation’s leading engineering education programs, having received national recognition for its role in encouraging middle school students to develop an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Each year, the Future City competition reaches more than 45,000 middle school students in 46 different regions throughout the United States and abroad. Teams are tasked with completing five deliverables:
- A virtual city design
- A 1,500-word essay
- A project plan
- A scale model built from recycled materials
- A presentation to volunteer judges at regional competitions
Regional winners then represent their respective regions at the finals competition in Washington, DC.
The 2019–2020 theme is Clean Water: Tap Into Tomorrow. Teams chose a threat to their city’s water supply and designed a resilient system to maintain a reliable supply of clean drinking water. Students then used the engineering design process to complete their Future City project—identifying problems, brainstorming ideas, designing solutions, testing, retesting, and building solutions, as well as sharing results. Throughout the process, students are not only equipped with the skills to be citizens in today’s world, but they also work to prepare to become the drivers of tomorrow.
The five regions representing Future City will highlight students from coast to coast, including those students local to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where AEM’s headquarters are located. The teams representing each region were chosen based on excellent presentation scores at their regional competitions.
Each day on the Tech Talks stage you’ll be able to see a different Future City team showcasing their models of clean drinking water solutions.
