Future perfect

David Kihara and Beth Slovic

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 | 5:05 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

February 5 - 6, 2005

Josh Valenzuela-Puerner, 13, said he looks good in a suit. So he is not ruling out a career in politics, he said, though he clearly has a bent for the sciences.

Last week, he and two of his 12-year-old classmates from Las Vegas Day School -- William Sidell and Jordan Lamothe -- took first place in a regional engineering competition for middle school students. They designed and built what judges deemed the best city of the future.

Organizers of the contest hope the students will consider careers in engineering.

From Feb. 21-23, the trio will compete in the national finals of the 2005 National Engineers Week Future City Competition in the nation's capital, where the 35 qualifying teams from across the country will battle for the top prize, a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.

Last year, 13-year-old Ashley Jensen took her city to Washington.

Jensen, currently an eighth grader at Jack and Terry Mannion Middle School, was just one of about 100 middle school-aged students who converged on Washington to take part in the annual competition in 2004.

The contest brings students from middle schools across the country to the nation's capital to exhibit what they envision a city of the future would look like and how it would function.

The students, working in teams of three, spend four to six months creating a 2 1/2-foot-by- 5-foot model of a "future city" out of recycled materials such as plaster, Legos and old battery-operated clocks. The students also create a computer model of the city and write essays on the functions of their creation.

This year, 22 Southern Nevada middle schools and four homeschool groups from the area competed in January's regional competition for the best future city. It was held at Sierra Vista High School and the 60-plus entries were judged by local engineers, business leaders, educators, scientists and others.

Jensen, who competed in the regional event, was a member of the winning team from Southern Nevada last year and was just as excited to compete this year.

"I thought it would be a challenge and that it would be really fun to do," Jensen said last month.

Jensen, along with her teammates Josh Rosenthal, 13, and Tyler Fish, 12, displayed their city at Jack and Terry Mannion Middle School before the competition. Their city, called Aida Eki Tokai (very loosely translated in Japanese means space station city) has a space theme and is what the students foresee a city in outer space would be.

The city, sitting on a pushcart, is made of materials they scavenged off previous future city models and treasures they found at garage sales. The city has makeshift solar panels made from plastic on the side and several moving parts, such as a motor from an old 8-track tape player that spins.

One requirement for the cities is that the materials do not exceed $100.

"Last year was really hard," Jensen said. "I had no idea how tough it was going to be."

She said she didn't remember where her team placed in the national competition, but she said it was definitely not first.

Tim Douglass, the senior environmental engineer with Stanley Consultants Inc., is a mentor for the middle school and helps advise the students on the projects. Each school is paired with an engineer from the community to help advise on the project.

In his fourth year as a mentor, Douglass said he hopes the competition will teach students about engineering and inspire them to become future engineers.

"It's a civil engineering project, and I'm a civil engineer and we're going to need a lot of civil engineers in the future," Douglass said, who jokingly added, "I need to make more civil engineers!"

As a mentor, he said he helps the students with the more technical aspects of creating a city and meets with the students at least once a week for about four months.

"I basically tell them that water doesn't flow upwards," he said. "These kids can invent stuff, but you can't rewrite the laws of physics."

But in the end, he said, "it's not my job to do the project. It's my job to do what the kids like."

Clay Phillips, 14, Francesca Tessarolo, 12, and Kaely Christensen, 12, also entered their city, Kaytropia, into the competition.

Their city, which is an intricate collection of used chess pieces, Legos, photo canisters and salt and pepper shakers, is built with an environmentally friendly theme. One of the features of their city is the KBTC, or Kaytropia Bicycle Transit System, a well-constructed series of clear plastic tubes that residents of the city would use to ride bicycles in.

"Cars run on fossil fuels, and bicycles are a renewable resource," Christensen said.

All three students said they enjoyed building the city, but admitted that they likely didn't want to become engineers. Phillips said he wanted to become a marine biologist while Christensen said she wanted to become a zoologist. Tessarolo wants to become an actress or a dancer.

"I think I learned a lot," Tessarolo said. "I didn't even know what an engineer was before this project."

Neither did Valenzuela-Puerner, one of the regional winners who shared with Tessarolo a wide range of interests. Valenzuela-Puerner said he was interested in a career in business, as was his teammate, Lamothe. Sidell, the third team member, said he was unable to decide at this point in his life.

"I know a lot about everything," 12-year-old Sidell said, explaining his indecision.

"I want to own small businesses," 12-year-old Lamothe chimed in.

Then, displaying a competitive spirit that may have helped carry his team to the national finals, Valenzuela-Puernar did not miss a beat. "I want to own large businesses," he said.