by Kurt Leininger, PE and Lindsay Musselman, EIT

On January 26th, 2008, Villanova University’s College of Engineering hosted the 15th annual Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition. This competition, sponsored in large part by Shell Oil Company, asks students to use the computer to create futuristic cities and then translate those electronic ideas into large scale models. The winning team from this competition will join the winners of other regional competitions at the National Finals, in Washington, D.C., during Engineers Week February 18-24, 2007.

We evaluated the entries for “Most Creative City”, which has been the Valley Forge Chapter’s special award the past five years. As in prior years, nearly all of the displays had at least one unique or creative idea that others did not have, which complicated our ranking.

Common themes among all displays were “green” technology and nanotechnology. Many of them conceived of their city in a foreign land, or at least not in our typical urban setting. The displays that we both ranked among the top five “most creative” had the following elements (the more unique items are italicized):

1) A 3rd-world city that is completely self-sufficient, using composting by vermiculture (worms) for waste disposal, water storage and pumping to public fill stations, and an “organic health spa”.

2) A city located where a monsoon season regularly occurs, with buildings that can be elevated by large motors to avoid flooding, maglev vehicles (no roads), all biodegradable materials, and dual power supply – hillside wind turbines in winter and ocean wave-powered turbines in summer.

3) An invisible city enclosed by a dome, located on an African savannah, with three layers – residential on the bottom, industry and commerce in the middle, and utilities on top - with fiber optics and satellite communications (the residents have special glasses to allow them to see where they live).

4) A domed city on Jupiter using hydrogen power, magnetic vehicles, and water imported from “nearby” Europa; the dome is unbreakable and protected with nanosensors.

5) (tie)

• A city on the moon intended mainly for research with only 30,000 residents, using fusion and hydrogen for both power supply and water produced as a byproduct.
• An all-green city with complete waste recycling, mass transit (no cars), hydroponics farming, a space elevator to capture energy from space, and a large multi-wing cantilevered building for centralized administration.

The "Most Creative City" was awarded to Cedarbrook Middle School, shown here with their display...