Merced County's newest city has a population of 50,000, with half its residents older than 100.
It's completely self-sustaining, as sewage provides the city's main energy source and everything is made of recycled materials. It's also remotely located on one of Saturn's moons.
A trio of city planners -- actually McSwain Elementary School students Amanda Skidmore, Andrew Skidmore and Morgan Reschenberg -- developed the fictional city of Centurion as an entry in the Future City competition, a contest sponsored by the National Engineers Week Foundation.
They won third place in the statewide competition, held the past weekend at California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock.
Not bad for a group that began as the contest's underdogs. With more than 40 teams entered, the Skidmore twins and Reschenberg got a late start, resulting in an immediate point deduction for their entry. They were competing with 26 other groups in the final rounds of the competition and were elated when they found out they made it to the top 5.
"We thought we'd get last place," Reschenberg said.
The contest required students to dream up an ideal town 150 years in the future, paired with a medical device to help that community's residents.
The city of Centurion is a giant retirement community located on Titan, one of Saturn's moons, where the lower gravity helps protect the elderly residents from harmful falls. Each resident wears a bracelet that monitors their vital signs. The other half of Centurion's residents consists of the city's staff, medical workers and their families.
The contest required students to think about all elements of city planning, from how residents get to work (transportation is powered by magnetic technology) to how they get their basic necessities (food grows larger in Centurion thanks to Titan's atmosphere and advances in genetic engineering).
The competition was held in four phases. The students had to build a virtual city using the SimCity computer game. They then had to build a scale model of the city, write an essay about it and make a presentation to a panel of judges.
Each of the students said the contest sparked their interest in science and engineering and hopes to enter the contest again.
The three students were the only team from Merced County, but Denise Skidmore, mother of Andrew and Amanda, hopes the Future City contest becomes part of the local school curriculum.
"What a great opportunity to bring everything they're learning into real life," she said.
The results, like Centurion, could be out of this world.
Online Editor Brandon Bowers can be reached at (209) 385-2462 or bbowers@mercedsun-star.com.
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