Kids plan for future

Imagine an undersea metropolis where trolleys levitating above magnetic rails zip you to a megamall powered by fusion reactors that turn household trash into electricity.

Sound far-fetched? Maybe not if you live in the 24th century.

Such revolutionary ideas were commonplace in the advanced human habitats presented Saturday at the Future City Competition. Teams of middle schoolers from across the state converged on the N.C. Museum of History to compete for a slot at the national finals next month in Washington, D.C.

Not yet burdened with college courses in applied physics, the budding engineers were free to design tabletop models where the daunting challenges of developing pollution-free mass transit are easily solved by beaming residents around town with a Star Trek-inspired transporter device.

Keally Miller of Lumberton Junior High School, unfazed by the potential physiological pratfalls of vaporizing human beings into raw energy and then attempting to perfectly reconstitute their "trillion trillion" atoms back into a solid form miles away, was quick to point out that her team's city also had a more traditional subway powered by fossil fuels.

"Some people might be scared of teleportation, so they would be old-fashioned and worry about their atoms getting reassembled," the eighth-grader said with a tone that implicitly equated such caution with being a Luddite 'fraidy cat.

Called Xandamarcopolis, a name tough to squeeze on welcome signs, this future city was located in Canada and also boasted a camouflaged shoebox adorned with curls of miniature razor wire representing the community's top employer -- a defense contractor. The plant was thoughtfully set out a safe distance from the city center, Miller explained, to help residents avoid errant ammo from the testing range.

The models had to be built from recycled materials, and many utilized liberal applications of futuristic silver spray paint. The teams also submitted essays and developed concepts using SimCity 3000, a computer game that allows the construction of virtual cities. The entries were expected to make good use of this year's theme building material -- aggregates.

Canada proved to be a temperate and popular locale for future construction in a world ravaged by the effects of global warming and rising sea levels. Students from Raleigh's Exploris Middle School had erected Saporro, a city built on adjustable-height stilts off the coast of British Columbia.

The northern site had another big advantage: "No hurricanes," surmised Exploris team member Frankie Shinn. Saporro had a set of underwater turbines that harnessed the power of the tides to run a supercomputer that controlled all the city's mechanical functions. None of them had apparently heard of Hal 9000, the homicidal computerized brain from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Organizers of the all-day competition compressed its schedule to judge the 21 entries and name a victor in a presentation shortly after lunch -- allowing out-of-towners on the road before the anticipated ice storm. Mendenhall Middle School in Greensboro took the top prize for its city, Roccacitta, and will represent the Tar Heel state at the national finals, scheduled for Feb. 23.

David Simpson, the North Carolina regional coordinator for the Future City Competition, stressed that even the losers were winners as long as they had fun.

"The goal is to have them interested in math, science and engineering," said Simpson, a civil engineer from Raleigh. "It gives these kids a wonderful opportunity to let their imaginations run wild and be creative."