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Washington DC, February 5th, 2018 – Long-held assumptions about aging are being radically redefined. Older adults are living longer, staying in the workforce longer and living independently for longer than ever. This population is also growing and altering society’s overall demographics. By 2050, older adults will outnumber children under the age of 14.
Since last fall, more than 40,000 middle school students from 1,350 schools in 41 US regions, as well as teams from Canada, China, and the Middle East, have imagined, designed and built cities for the 2017-2018 Future City® Competition. This year’s theme, The Age-Friendly City, encourages students to design innovative solutions that can serve an urban area’s older population. Students are tasked with identifying age-related issues in their city and engineering innovative solutions that enable seniors to remain active and independent.
In January, each region held qualifying competitions to select the team that will compete at the Future City Finals. Now, those winners are preparing to travel to Washington, DC for the Finals, to be held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, February 17-20, 2018, during Engineers Week. The exciting competition takes place over four days and culminates with one team taking home the grand prize of a trip to U.S. Space Camp and $7,500 for their school’s STEM program (provided by Finals sponsor Bentley Systems).
The Future City Competition is a project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. Keeping the engineering design process and project management front and center, students are asked to address an authentic, real-world question: How can we make the world a better place?
Working in a team with an educator and STEM mentor, students present their vision of the future through a virtual city design using SimCity™ software; a 1,500 word city essay; a scale model of their city built with recycled materials; and in a short presentation to a panel of STEM professionals.
Future City will be streaming the Finals as part of this year’s competition. The livestream begins on Tuesday, February 20th at 8:30am (EST) as the competition kicks off with the annual parade of teams. The Future City Finals grand prize winner will be announced at approximately 12:00pm (EST). Watch live at futurecity.org or on our Facebook page. Follow #FutureCity2018 for updates throughout the event.
This year marks the third consecutive year Future City has received a prestigious national award for being a leading engineering education program. In October, Future City was recognized by US2020 and co-founding sponsors, Chevron and Tata Consultancy Services, for the program's achievements and innovations in STEM education and its accessibility to underrepresented youth.
In 2016, the Future City Competition received the 2016 Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction, presented by Turner Construction Company and the National Building Museum.
In 2015, Future City was named the grand prize winner in the UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.) Innovative Education Award program, receiving a $100,000 award. The UL award highlights the essential, urgent and significant value of E-STEM education.
Future City has ongoing opportunities for engineering and technical professionals to volunteer in a number of different roles, including mentors and regional coordinators. For information about Future City or to volunteer, visit www.futurecity.org.
Major funding for Future City comes from the Bechtel Corporation, Bentley Systems, Inc, Shell Oil Company, and DiscoverE. Additional program support provided by UL, EA, and AARP.
About DiscoverE
DiscoverE is leading a growing volunteer movement that inspires and informs present and future generations to discover engineering. Our network of volunteers in the US and abroad is drawn from the DiscoverE coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies. Together we meet a vital need: introducing students, parents, and educators to engineering, engaging them in hands-on engineering experiences and making science and math relevant. For more information, visit www.discovere.org.
Press Contact Future City Competition - National
Carina Sayles Sayles & Winnikoff Communications (212) 725-5200 ext. 210 carina@sayleswinnikoff.com
Alyssa Tognetti Sayles & Winnikoff Communications (212) 725-5200 ext. 114 alyssa@sayleswinnikoff.com
2017-18 FUTURE CITY COMPETITION REGIONAL WINNERS
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Alabama School: Academy for Science and Foreign Language Arizona School: Maricopa Wells Middle School California (Northern) School: Gratton School California (Southern) School: The Rhoades School Canada (Ontario) School: Alexander Graham Bell Public SchoolHometown: Ajax, Ontario Future City Name: The Golden Age City Canada (Prince Edward Island) School: Grace Christian School Hometown: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island Future City Name: Vitalicio China (Shangai East) School: Shanghai Xiangming Junior High School Hometown: Shanghai, China Future City Name: Hammer City China (Shanghai West) School: Minhang Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU Hometown: Shanghai, China Future City Name: New Lakeside China (Sichuan) School: Tianfu No. 7 High School Hometown: Sichuan, China Future City Name: Manna City Colorado School: Liberty Classical Academy Hometown: New Castle, CO Future City Name: Terra Mare Florida (South) School: St. Hugh Catholic School Future City Name: Tandanya Florida (Tampa Bay) School: Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School Center for Gifted Studies Hometown: Largo, FL Future City Name: Luminica |
Georgia School: St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School Great Plains School: West Middle School Idaho School: Homedale Middle School Illinois School: St. Paul of the Cross School Hometown: Park Ridge, IL Indiana School: Riverview Middle School Iowa School: Decorah Middle School Kentucky School: Graves County 4-H Louisiana School: Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Magnet Academy Hometown: Baton Rouge, LA Future City Name: Vieux Carre Michigan School: St. John Lutheran School Mid-Atlantic School: Edlin School Minnesota School: Judge Page Middle School Missouri School: St. Clair Junior High Nebraska School: Wayne Jr.-Sr. High School |
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Nevada (Southern) School: Las Vegas Day School Hometown: Las Vegas, NV New England School: Dr. Albert F. Argenziano School at Lincoln Park New Jersey School: Harding Township School New Mexico School: Annunciation Catholic School Hometown: Albuquerque, NM New York (Albany) School: Richard H. O'Rourke Middle School Hometown: Burnt Hills, NY New York (City) School: Columbia Secondary School Hometown: New York, NY New York (Western) School: Mill Middle School North Carolina School: Hanes Magnet School Ohio School: Heritage Middle School Oklahoma School: St. Philip Neri Catholic School
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Pennsylvania (Central) School: Warwick Middle School Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) School: Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) School: The Ellis School South Carolina School: The Kennedy Middle School Tennessee School: Carpenters Middle School Texas (Houston) School: Fort Bend Independent School District Texas (North) School: Pearson Middle School Washington School: Pacific Middle School Wisconsin School: St. Alphonsus School |