ROSWELL, Ga. (PRWEB) January 20, 2019
InterDev, an Atlanta area provider of Information Technology, Security, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services, is proud to sponsor the Future City Competition to be held this weekend at the City Springs Conference Center in Sandy Springs, GA.
Future City is a national competition that focuses on improving students’ math, engineering, and science skills. The program invites 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to use problem solving skills to imagine, design, and build cities of the future.
The competition starts with a question to the students – How can we make the world a better place? The students are given a scenario in which they must provide a solution to a citywide issue. Past topics include storm water management, urban agriculture, public spaces, and green energy. The 2018-2019 theme is Powering Our Future! Teams will be tasked to design a power grid for Future City that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster. Winners of the January regional competitions will move on to compete at the Finals in Washington, DC next month.
After the departure of the Georgia’s regional coordinator, Future Cities organizers suddenly found themselves without a coordinator for the region and without a venue for the 2019 competition. Eleonora Straub stepped up to the plate and filled the position. Straub advised the team from St. Jude the Apostle School that won first place in the regional Future City competition in 2018, and represented Georgia at the World Competition in Washington, D.C. “Future City’s competition in GA was in danger of not happening at all since we lost not only our regional coordinator, but also the location at which to hold this amazing competition,” Straub said.
InterDev’s Director of GIS, Mike Edelson, suggested City Springs for the event and made the introduction. “Mike saved the day and thus saved the Future City competition in Georgia!” said Straub. Edelson has been involved with Future City competition for many years as a SimCity Virtual City and Special/Society Awards Judge.
Working together with City Springs and Edelson, Straub was able to secure not only a state of the art competition location but also additional sponsors for the event. Straub announced, “On behalf of all the middle school students in GA, I would like to thank Mr. Edelson for his brilliant idea, his tireless determination and his generous support in making Future City competition happen last Saturday, January 19th, 2019!”
InterDev’s GIS team currently provides services to nearly 30 municipalities throughout the Southeast. With the Future City Competition coming so close to home, the team will have the direct opportunity to offer their continued support to the program. In addition, a number InterDev employees have volunteered to help judge this year’s regional competition.
About Future City
Future City is a program of DiscoverE, a consortium of professional and technical societies and major U.S. corporations. Future City, a STEM program, is reaching females and underserved students: 49% of participants are female; 33% of participating schools have 50% or more of their students enrolled in the reduced or free lunch program. The annual Future City Competition for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students is held from September 2018 through February 2019.
More than 40,000 students from 1,350 middle schools typically participate nationwide in the regional competitions. The winning team from each qualifying regional competition receives a trip to the Future City Finals at the Hyatt Regency in Washington DC, February 16-20, 2019. For more information, visit http://www.futurecity.org.
About InterDev
Beyond their principal role as a strategic provider of Managed IT and Security Services, InterDev is well known as a champion of IT visioning and innovation for growing businesses and government agencies – a role they perfected over nearly four decades. In addition to managing and hosting IT operations for its valued clients, InterDev also offers MosaicGIS™, a cloud-based, software-as-a-service GIS platform based on Esri, as well as VoIP telecommunications services and circuit solutions. InterDev delivers services to businesses and municipalities throughout the Southeast and Midwest from their offices in Atlanta, Beaufort (SC) and Chicago. For more information, visit http://www.interdev.com.