Eighth graders’ 23rd century Martian city makes the final five among
“Future City” projects from more than 30,000 students nationwide

CHICAGO (February 25, 2004) – A team of five eighth-grade St. Barnabas Catholic School students in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood today was ranked among the top five overall winners in the national finals of the Future City competition in Washington, D.C. The competition is sponsored by the National Engineers Week Committee of the National Society of Professional Engineers.

The St. Barnabas team’s design, “Lewis & Clark, the City of Discovery,” a proposed community on the planet Mars 200 years in the future, placed fifth in the nationals, beating entries by 28 other student teams from schools across the United States. In total, 33,000 students from more than 1,100 middle schools participated in competitions in 33 U.S. regions earlier this year. The winning team from each region earned a berth in the national competition St. Barnabas, which represented the Chicago metropolitan region, won the Future City national title in the 2001.

The 2004 St. Barnabas team, composed of three presenters, Claire Bowens, 13, Robert Caruso, 14, and Meg Hlousek, 13; and two alternate presenters, Christopher Davis and Kevin Mallon, both 13; were guided by licensed professional engineer Tim Cullina, who has served as the school’s volunteer engineer mentor for the competition since 1991. All students and their mentor are residents of the Beverly neighborhood on the city’s southwest side.

The team chose to name the project after 19th century explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to commemorate the 200th anniversary this year of the launch of their U.S. Western frontier expedition, another journey of discovery. Set in the year 2204, the Mars city also celebrates the 200th anniversary of NASA’s current exploration of the red planet by rovers Opportunity and Spirit. An elaborate, colorful, three-dimensional tabletop model of the city features 19 separate enclosed habitats – each built above and below the planet’s surface – for residential, commercial and industrial use.

The students created and designed the city using SimCity 3000 software; wrote an abstract and an essay about the futuristic city; created a three-dimensional model and visual aids illustrating their computer design. In addition to conceiving and creating a model of a city of the future, students presented and defended their cities before a panel of judges at both the regional and national competitions.

SimCity is educational and entertainment software that enables users to plan and simulate the operation of a virtual city.

National Engineers Week, founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, is dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of the engineering profession and technology and is celebrated by thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers and leaders in government and business. Co-chairs for 2004 are The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE/IEEE-USA) and the Fluor Corporation.

Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools
The Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago play a critical role in the life of the community by providing academic excellence and faith formation for approximately 111,000 students of many races, faiths and backgrounds in the 283 elementary and secondary schools in Cook and Lake counties. There are more than 5,800 teachers in the Catholic school system who instill values, teach discipline and achieve strong, consistent academic results in the Archdiocese of Chicago's 242 elementary and 41 secondary schools. Visit the Archdiocese of Chicago Web site at www.archchicago.org/schools.