The students competed in the Northern California Regional National Engineers Week Future City Competition January 24 at Santa Clara University, one of 34 competitions nationwide involving 30,000 young people from more than 1,100 schools.

Shonda Scott, an executive with the BART Earthquake Safety Program, said local engineers Forrest Lanning, Kang Chen, Clay Claassen and Charles Beauvior served as mentors for seventh- and eighth-grade students who built computerized and three-dimensional models of future cities. They also were required to write essays on how plastics can be used to help the elderly, Scott said.

Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid (Elmhurst-East Oakland) joined numerous BART officials at Elmhurst Middle School Monday for an assembly to congratulate "Best in Its Class" Future City award winners Ebony Donnley, Jahmel Afari and Ashley De La Torre, who is also now competing in the state Geography Bee.

"It was challenging trying to build a city," Afari said. "But it was fun working with computers."

Wallace Peterson, an eighth-grade science teacher, said, "They had to come up with a city that was self-sustaining with an infrastructure and with a quality of life. They included recycling plants for plastics and waste.

"They are all doing well academically, and they wanted to be a part of this competition."

John Mack of BART told the students "I hope one day you will become engineers at BART." The competition is in its 12th year, said program spokesman Donald Lehr. "(The Oakland students) gained valuable insights on the challenges and rewards of engineering, not just math and science, but troubleshooting, creative vision, teamwork and cooperation," Lehr said.

Edna Brewer Middle School students Judy Pun, Cindy Ruan and Quy Chao Le received a "Most Expressive City" award and will be honored Wednesday during an assembly at their school that will be attended by City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (San Antonio-Fruitvale).

On Thursday, Councilmember Danny Wan (Grand Lake-Chinatown) will attend a ceremony at Roosevelt Middle School where students Khristopher Patrick, Collin Wong, Patrick Huie and Roscio Briseno won for "Best Ergonomically Designed City."

Students from Westlake Middle School, Lowell Middle School, Bret Harte Middle School and Acts Christian Academy also competed.