During the 2024–2025 school year, four Omaha North High Students were selected
to go the Future Cities Competition. The competition focused on a team of students
building a floating city.
The students had to provide an essay describing their city, a Revit model of the city and a
presentation about the city they created.
The competition was held in Washington, District of Columbia (DC) on February
15th. Jenna Hotze, math and engineering teacher, led four engineering students to the
competition. Leo Preheim, 12, Nyan Aung, 12, Miles Rogers, 12, and Lucas Gura ,11, were
all a part of the same team.
The four engineering students chose to make a floating city of Venice due to the
current rate of climate change and the possibility of it not being around in 100 years.
“Their city would be a place for displaced Venice residents that upkeeps the rich
culture of Venice,” said Jenna Hotze.
Aside from traveling to a different state for the competition, the students were also
striving to place. First place winners received $20,000 dollars in scholarships, second
place is $10,000 dollars and third place is $5,000 dollars.
“Winning would mean a lot of money for college,” said Preheim.
At the start of the competition there were 109 teams competing from all 50 states. In
the end, this number dropped to only the top 20 teams in the United States which included
North’s team.
“It’s the top 20 teams, so we only have nineteen other teams to worry about and
everybody has a clean slate, everybody is at ground zero, so we have a pretty good chance
at winning,” said Aung.
For the competition, the materials the students needed for this design are a
computer, which has all the building files and their presentation. They did not need a
physical model of their floating city, but rather a digital one which they used as a
presentation.
The competition originally started in August, however the National Competition
presentation lasted 20 minutes per team.
to go the Future Cities Competition. The competition focused on a team of students
building a floating city.
The students had to provide an essay describing their city, a Revit model of the city and a
presentation about the city they created.
The competition was held in Washington, District of Columbia (DC) on February
15th. Jenna Hotze, math and engineering teacher, led four engineering students to the
competition. Leo Preheim, 12, Nyan Aung, 12, Miles Rogers, 12, and Lucas Gura ,11, were
all a part of the same team.
The four engineering students chose to make a floating city of Venice due to the
current rate of climate change and the possibility of it not being around in 100 years.
“Their city would be a place for displaced Venice residents that upkeeps the rich
culture of Venice,” said Jenna Hotze.
Aside from traveling to a different state for the competition, the students were also
striving to place. First place winners received $20,000 dollars in scholarships, second
place is $10,000 dollars and third place is $5,000 dollars.
“Winning would mean a lot of money for college,” said Preheim.
At the start of the competition there were 109 teams competing from all 50 states. In
the end, this number dropped to only the top 20 teams in the United States which included
North’s team.
“It’s the top 20 teams, so we only have nineteen other teams to worry about and
everybody has a clean slate, everybody is at ground zero, so we have a pretty good chance
at winning,” said Aung.
For the competition, the materials the students needed for this design are a
computer, which has all the building files and their presentation. They did not need a
physical model of their floating city, but rather a digital one which they used as a
presentation.
The competition originally started in August, however the National Competition
presentation lasted 20 minutes per team.
Preheim is the senior editor of the group. Some of his responsibilities include editing
all the documents, providing a lot of inspiration, and is the lead presenter. He helps the
other members with their speech and speaks most throughout the presentation.
Overall Preheim was eager to travel to DC and see the many sites it has to offer.
“We get to go to DC, and we get to explore the whole city and go to China town and
go to all the historic landmarks. I think that would be a lot of fun, even if we don’t do good in
the competition, just seeing the city would be really cool and it’s all free,” said Preheim.
Aung works a lot on Revit. Revit is a Building Information Modeling (BIM) software
used to design, document, and manage construction projects. Aung also worked on
building the city components, building the actual city, the floating components, and taking
photos of the city built.
“I love the sense that we are competing against other engineers, with other people
wanna go into stem fields not particularly just engineering…people who are just like us all
across the country,” said Aung.
Rogers is the third member of the team and has helped with designing the
PowerPoint, making it look aesthetic and wrote the 2,000–word essay. Rogers is also
excited about going to DC as Preheim is.
“Just seeing DC would be very fun and just doing the Word and Revit is very fun,”
said Rogers.
Gura is the final and youngest member of the National team. He assisted the team
in many different ways, not having one specific job.
Overall, the team ended up placing 14th out of 20th . They also stayed in DC for four days and
four nights.
“The students gave the best prestation about their project I have ever seen in my years as
an Engineering teacher. I was extremely proud of them!” said Hotze.
all the documents, providing a lot of inspiration, and is the lead presenter. He helps the
other members with their speech and speaks most throughout the presentation.
Overall Preheim was eager to travel to DC and see the many sites it has to offer.
“We get to go to DC, and we get to explore the whole city and go to China town and
go to all the historic landmarks. I think that would be a lot of fun, even if we don’t do good in
the competition, just seeing the city would be really cool and it’s all free,” said Preheim.
Aung works a lot on Revit. Revit is a Building Information Modeling (BIM) software
used to design, document, and manage construction projects. Aung also worked on
building the city components, building the actual city, the floating components, and taking
photos of the city built.
“I love the sense that we are competing against other engineers, with other people
wanna go into stem fields not particularly just engineering…people who are just like us all
across the country,” said Aung.
Rogers is the third member of the team and has helped with designing the
PowerPoint, making it look aesthetic and wrote the 2,000–word essay. Rogers is also
excited about going to DC as Preheim is.
“Just seeing DC would be very fun and just doing the Word and Revit is very fun,”
said Rogers.
Gura is the final and youngest member of the National team. He assisted the team
in many different ways, not having one specific job.
Overall, the team ended up placing 14th out of 20th . They also stayed in DC for four days and
four nights.
“The students gave the best prestation about their project I have ever seen in my years as
an Engineering teacher. I was extremely proud of them!” said Hotze.