Last Friday, the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering Science of Smart Cities program culminated with its fourth annual Expo, a demonstration of model smart cities designed and built by the forty-seven middle school participants. Proud family members and teachers were able to view the models while the students explained how their cities incorporate the engineering lessons they had learned in the classroom.
During the previous four weeks, NYU engineering students taught the participants science, technology, engineering, and math content through hands-on curriculum. Designed at NYU SoE, the curriculum focuses on Energy, Urban Infrastructure, Wireless Communications, and Transportation. The participants incorporated what they had learned about engineering aspects of sustainable and resilient cities when designing their own smart city and then taught this back to the Expo attendees.
Speaking in front of a group and answering unexpected questions both take skill, as does explaining complex STEM concepts using plain language. To help the students prepare for the Expo, they received ten hours of training in public speaking, improvisation, and communication skills by members of a theater group, The Irondale Ensemble Project.
The Science of Smart Cities 2015 program was supported through generous funding from National Grid.
