March 2014

NSPE TODAY
Future City Program Earns Grant Money

DiscoverE, formerly the National Engineers Week Foundation, has been awarded two new grants to expand the Future City Competition in both size and scope.

The first grant is from the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation, giving $428,900 for DiscoverE to add project management concepts to the competition. The intention is for students to apply these concepts to their Future City submissions while learning a set of skills that will prove useful in college and beyond. These skills include planning and executing projects with an eye toward time management, communications, and human resources, among other areas.

The competition also received a $75,000 grant from the Massachusetts @Scale Project Initiative to increase education in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Primarily, this money will help the competition reach more students and teachers across the state.

The Future City Competition asks teams of middle school students to imagine, research, and design cities that solve an engineering problem. For 2014, the theme is “Tomorrow’s Transit,” where students must design novel approaches to move people in and around cities.

“Both of these grants help us to reach more students, expand the profile of the program, and most importantly, support hands-on, real-life training that Future City participants are able to take with them throughout their lives,” said Thea Sahr, director of programs for DiscoverE, in the funding announcement.

To learn more about the Future City Competition, visit www.futurecity.org.