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For Immediate Release

Written by: Louise Teague, 260-481-6165

Media contact: Carol Dostal, 260-481-6905

Indiana Students Tackle City Safety in Future City Competition at IPFW

(Fort Wayne, Jan. 14, 2008) -- When an interstate bridge collapses during rush hour or broken levies destroy a major city, Americans are reminded of the nations crumbling infrastructure. For the 2008 National Engineers Week Future City Competition (tm), thousands of middle school students have spent the past three months tackling safety issues of our country's vast network of utilities, transportation, structures, and communications systems.

On Saturday, Jan. 19, Indiana University—Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) will host the Indiana Future City Competition in the Walb Student Union Ballroom. The public is invited to view the Future City models from 9 to 11 a.m. and to attend the final judging rounds and awards from 1 to 3 p.m.

Students worked in teams with a teacher and a volunteer engineer mentor to create a city, first on computers using SimCity 3000 software and then in a large tabletop model. Thirty teams from eighteen Indiana schools will display their model cities and defend their designs to a panel of volunteer engineer judges. The students will also submit written abstracts on their cities and have researched this year's essay theme, "Keeping Our City Infrastructure Healthy: Using Nanotechnology to Monitor City Structures and Systems." Local government and business people became involved by volunteering their expertise as panelists at student "help" sessions held last fall. Indiana's first-place winners will join teams from 39 other regions for an all-expense-paid trip to the 16th Annual Future City National Finals in Washington, D.C. during Engineers Week in February.

Aiming to stir interest in science, technology, math, and engineering among young people, the Indiana Future City Competition is sponsored by area professional engineering organizations and businesses, including the Finals sponsor, Indiana Michigan Power. The competition at IPFW is coordinated by the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science, in partnership with NE Indiana National Engineers Week Committee, Science Central, Fort Wayne Community Schools, and the City of Fort Wayne.

For more information visit www.futurecity.org, www.etcs.ipfw.edu/fcc/; Carol Dostal, Indiana regional coordinator, 260-481-6905, dostalc@ipfw.edu; or Donald Lehr, The Nolan/Lehr Group, 212-967-8200, dlehr@futurecity.org.

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