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Future City Competition - North Texas

America needs more engineers and technical professionals to fuel our innovation economy. Future City (an Engineers Week Foundation program) is a wonderful way to introduce 6th, 7th, and 8th graders to engineering and expose them to a rewarding career possibility. Post-program surveys show that a majority of students become more interested in math, science and engineering after completing Future City.

The North Texas Regional program is entirely run by volunteers. ASCE has been a major contributor for the past several years. There are many opportunities to become involved: as mentors, working directly with the student teams; as judges either in-person or online; and as event coordinators. And, for those who would prefer, Future City welcomes monetary and service contributions at any level from companies, associations, and individuals. See www.dfwfuturecity.org under “Get Involved.”

Volunteering is an excellent opportunity for civil engineers to give back to our industry. The commitment is only for 1 or 2 hours per week from November through January. It is extremely rewarding to see our local students introduced to engineering through this program. Currently we are hoping to locate mentors for a number of schools, including the following:

• Billy Earl Dade Middle School, 2727 Grand Ave., Dallas, TX
• Coyle Middle School, 4500 Skyline Road, Rowlett, TX
• Dallas Environmental Science Academy, 3635 Greenleaf St., Dallas, TX
• McCowan Middle School, 1500 Majestic Meadows, Glenn Heights, TX
• McNiel Junior High, 4712 Barnett Rd., Wichita Falls, TX
• Nova Academy Prichard, 2800 Prichard Ln.,  Dallas, TX
• Reynolds Middle School, 700 N. Coleman, Prosper, TX

The competition involves a SimCity computer game model, an essay, and finally a scale model of their own Future City.  Here are a few links with info on the competition.  

• http://www.dfwfuturecity.org/
• http://www.dfwfuturecity.org/part_mentor.html
• http://www.dfwfuturecity.org/comp_sched.html
• http://dfwfuturecity.org/team_rsrc.html
• http://futurecity.org/
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Future-City-Competition-North-Texas/129477130433040

Thanks in advance for your help and please feel free to call or email the Future City Competition Mentor Coordinator if you interested in volunteering or have any questions.

Thomas E. Hunt, P.E.
Future City Engineer/Mentor Coordinator
[email protected]
(214)998-4279