St. Anne's creates electrical spark in Future City competition

A team of future engineers from St. Anne’s School have recently returned with a third-place win in the 2012 Northern California Future City competition at University of California, Davis.

Under the direction of coach Irwin Samson, the St. Anne’s team — Audrey Garcia, Leena Leyva, Lauren Cometa, and alternate Jacob Olmos — was one of 17 semifinalist teams of middle school students throughout California to address this year’s theme “Fuel your future: Imagine new ways to meet our energy needs and maintain a healthy planet.”

The team worked every day after school for three to four months.

The competition is a fun way to learn about engineering and cities of the future.

On Tuesday, the students presented their winning entry to the school’s student body.

“We’re here today to tell you about daily life in a future city,” said Garcia, who served as the city’s electrical and mechanical engineer.

Leyva played the role of a civil engineer and city manager, and Cometa was a sustainable design engineer.

The team’s project “Where Electricity Sparks” was a model of a futuristic city — one with solar power, saline electricity and wind turbines that power the city through underground wires connected by a smart grid.

According to the team, the faux city — Simplicity — is located in Southern California, is home to close to 200,000 residents, and flourishes with technology and research while sporting public and private schools, a police force, fire department and hospital facilities.

It also has a hydroponic farm, with plants growing in water, not soil, in a controlled nutrient system that does not release pollutants into the environment.

The team explained the way water is recycled, talked about the city’s public transportation systems, and explained how the city got its motto “Where electricity sparks” — a name derived because of the city’s abundant electricity production.

“The city’s most efficient energy sources is saline electricity [which] converts saltwater into usable electricity,” Cometa said. “The underground network systems of pipes use vacuums to continuously pump saltwater in and out of our plants.”

Numerous recreational areas, including sports centers, cultural buildings, parks and gardens were evident in the city.

Simplicty’s variety of characteristics — public transportation, recreational areas, eco-friendly power sources, effective healthcare and excellent safety and education programs — make the city unique, Garcia said.

“Simplicidites believe in the advancement of technology, continue to support its development, and will use their innovations to thrive for years to come,” Leyva said as the program ended.

In the audience was Pablo and Gabriela Leyva, Leena’s parents.

“They worked so hard and we’re really proud of their accomplishment,” Pablo Leyva said. “It’s humbling to see all this.”

Gabriela Leyva said they attended the competition and were thrilled when they heard that St. Anne’s had made it as one of the top five teams.

“The top five had to present a second time, this time in front of a panel of celebrity judges — engineers, doctors and judges from Sysco and Pelco. I was very proud of the presentation and how they answered. They were very confident,” Gabriela Leyva said.

Samson said he was also proud of the team.

“They started with a Simplicity game on a computer — learning about residential and commercial zones and how to budget,” Samson said. “They worked so hard on this project, even without an engineer. Other teams had an engineer on board.”

Taking first place was Hart-Ransom School of Modesto, second-place was won by McSwain School in Merced. Fourth and fifth place were schools in Milpitas and Santa Rosa.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045 or eavila@portervillerecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @Avila_recorder.