Future City – Florida (South)
Florida Regional Future City™ Competition is a National Engineers Week educational program for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students to foster interest in math, science and engineering through hands on experience. This is a school-based competition for students in public, private, parochial, and home schools.
Every registered school is eligible to compete at the regional level. At the regional and national levels a competition team is strictly defined as three presenting students, the teacher/coach, and the engineer mentor.
There are four phases in the Future City Competition, please refer to the future city website (www.futurecity.org) for more information regarding the four phases and their requirements.
The South Florida Regional Competition is held in Miami, Florida in mid to late January at the FIU Engineering Center, located at 10555 West Flagler Street.
Prof. O. A. Mohammed at Florida International University, Chairman of IEEE Miami Section and the Florida (South) Regional Coordinator says “The Florida Regional Winners were placed in the top five finalists nationally in four of the last eight years. We have been very successful at the national competitions and it is time for one of our Florida schools to place first at the National Level”. South Florida has competed during the last 12 years of the 18-year old competition.
The regional competition is judged by members of the local chapters of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Florida Engineering Society (FES), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineers (CAACE) and several other professional and technical engineering organizations, as well as engineering students from the various disciplines from FIU and other local engineering colleges and universities. Several Special Awards are given by these organizations, each for a different set of engineering criteria for innovations and how they are implemented in the city designs
One winning team from Florida (South) qualifies for a trip to the national finals in Washington DC, which take place during Engineer’s Week, and where teams from 40 regions from throughout the nation compete for the top city design. The National Finals Grand Prize winners receive a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, provided by National Finals host Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Besides determining the top three winners, special awards are also granted in over a dozen engineering disciplines and categories.