Chatham Middle School Students Win NJ 'Future City' Championship

CHATHAM, NJ — Three Chatham Middle School students envisioned a lunar city in the year 2121. They have a century to make it happen, but the design brought them a New Jersey Future City Regional title.

Eighth-graders Priyanka Patel, Ishita Yadav and Dhiren Holland envisioned Helianthus — a revolutionary city cradled in the lava tubes of the highland terrain of Philolaus Crater in Saturday's competition.

Using resources helium-3 and lunar ice, the engineers imagined a vibrant multi-national city featuring a pressurized plaza, vertical farms, nanobot technologies and gene modification. You know, typical eighth-grade stuff.

The students submitted a tabletop model slideshow, essay, protect plan and a seven-minute presentation for regional judging. They competed against about 80 teams.

All three students are part of JerseySTEM — a nonprofit that partners with schools and organizations in teaching science, technology, engineering and math to middle-school students.

Patel, Yadav and Holland and their educator and coach, Judith Vihonski, will advance to the national championship. Terry Hart, the team's mentor and engineer, is a former astronaut. Hart logged 168 hours in space and currently serves as an engineering professor at Lehigh University.

Students from across the United States, Canada and China will vie for the title.

Sixth graders Lauren Sutherland, Ishar Swamy and Vikram Patel received the engineering design award at the competition.

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