Discover E presents the Future City Competition nationwide for 6th, 7th & 8th graders to foster interest in math, science and engineering through hands-on, real-world applications.  The five month competition, in which students design and build models of future urban centers, encourages students to learn about engineering in a challenging and interesting way.  This competition has grown to 40 regions across the nation and poised to becoming an international program within the next decade.

Middle School students create a team along with a teacher and an engineer mentor.  Using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) and project management skills, students showcase their solutions to a citywide sustainability issue, while designing their futuristic city.  The teams are given a limited city budget, land specifications, city pollution and crime requirements, the ability to tax and spend, and citizens move in or out of the city depending on their level of satisfaction.  Their future cities must address issues such as pollution, crime, safety, traffic, unemployment, power consumption, taxes, commercial and residential zoning, water systems, airports and other societal dilemmas.  They must also prepare a project plan, a schedule, an essay on an engineering topic, then build a scaled-down dimensional model, and give a formal presentation before a panel of judges.  Each component of the competition is judged by engineers whom have volunteered from several local companies.

This competition is over 30 years strong and looking for IEEE members and local Sections to participate as team mentors, judges, special awards sponsors and volunteers for the Region.

For more information about this competition or National Engineers Week, visit www.futurecity.org.

This year’s challenge asks students to build a 100% electrically powered city with energy generated from sources that keep your citizens and the environment healthy and safe.

The photos of the latest Alabama Regional competition, hosted at Auburn University and sponsored by the IEEE Huntsville Section and Bentley Systems, are posted in this album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/auburnengineers/albums/72177720305450310