ITSAZ Future Cities Competition

by | Jan 17, 2023 | Past News & Events

ITS Arizona Members,

ITS Arizona is once again participating in Arizona’s regional Future City Competition, sponsoring an award for Best Future Transportation System, and we need your support!  For those not familiar with the Future City Competition, here’s a great summary from their website:

Future City starts with a question—how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. Past topics include stormwater management, urban agriculture, public spaces, and green energy. The 2022-2023 theme is addressing Climate Change. Teams will address climate change when designing their city.

 

Participants complete five deliverables: a 1,500-word city essay; a scale model (or multiple model segments) built from recycled materials; a project plan, a presentation, and a Q&A session with judges. Regional winners represent their region at the international Finals. After completing Future City, student participants are not only prepared to be citizens of today’s complex and technical world, but also poised to become the drivers of tomorrow.

As a part of our sponsorship, ITS Arizona is developing a team of volunteers to participate in viewing the students’ models as well as judging presentations to determine our award winner. Judges are also welcome to review essays corresponding to the models and presentations for additional context. This year, the competition will be held in person again. Models are available to view in the Burton Barr Central Library and presentations will be in person at the ASU Preparatory Academy in downtown Phoenix. The competition will follow the schedule below:

  • January 15th-19th, 2023: Models will be available for viewing in the Burton-Barr Library during Library hours (note the library is closed on 1/16 for MLK).
  • Saturday, January 21, 2023: Arizona Regional Finals at ASU Preparatory Academy in Downtown Phoenix
      • Judge check-in at 7:00-7:15 AM
      • Judging Ends at 12:00 PM
      • Final Awards to follow in the afternoon and judges are encouraged to stay for the awards.

 If you are interested in participating in the competition this year as an ITS Arizona representative, please email Hunter Venne at hunter.venne@dibblecorp.com for more details.