To anyone worried about what tomorrow may bring, seventh- and eighth-graders across America have an answer: It will take a lot of work, but things are going to be fine.

“Life will be a lot easier,” predicts Gabrielle Rocco, a member of the winning team from Islip Middle School in Islip, New York, which will represent the New York City competition, one of a record-breaking 37 participating regions at the National Finals.  “Engineers will invent robots to help us.  There will be less pollution, more alternative fuels, the air won’t be as polluted and there won’t be so much global warming.”

It’s much more than wishful thinking.  The competition, students say, has taught them that a better future is up to them.

“With Future City you can look at things from a different point of view,” says Jeremy Boyd, a seventh-grader on the team from Heritage Middle School in Westerville, Ohio, his state’s regional winner.  “In my opinion, it’s a way to live a better life.”

Future City, now in its 16th year, asks middle school students to develop futuristic urban designs, first on computer and then in large tabletop models.  Working in teams with a teacher and volunteer engineer mentor, students create their cities using the SimCity 3000TM videogame donated to all participating schools by Electronic Arts, Inc. of Redwood City, California.  From that design, they build large table-top models using recycled materials with a budget of less than $100.  They write a city abstract and an essay on using engineering to solve an important social need – this year's theme asks students to describe how nanotechnology will monitor their city’s structures and systems to keep its infrastructure healthy.  At regional competitions in January and at the National Finals, they present, defend, and answer questions about their cities before a panel of engineer judges.

For one of the winning regional teams – Westridge Middle School in Shawnee Mission, Kansas – working for a better future is particularly realistic.  Their model is based on rebuilding Greensburg, the small Kansas town virtually wiped from the map by a tornado last year.  For team member Amy Marie Hocker, 14, the effort is more than just rebuilding a physical city.  “We want to open people’s eyes that there is hope after a natural disaster.”

Regional competition winning teams receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington for the Future City National Finals, hosted by Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading provider of infrastructure design and engineering software.

“Part of our responsibility as industry leaders lies in developing the talented and diverse workforce who will be designing the world’s infrastructure in the future,” says Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley.  “We’ve joined with many others who support the National Engineers Week Future City Competition because of its unique ability for inspiring students to consider career choices that might otherwise have overlooked engineering.  The combination of engineer mentors, hands-on learning, and teamwork engages students and opens the door to endless possibilities for them and the engineering profession.”

At the National Finals, students will vie for the grand prize of a week at US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.  Some 30,000 students from more than 1,111 schools – a record number of registered schools – participated in 2007-08.  Future City is sponsored in part by the National Engineers Week Foundation, a formal coalition of more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and some 50 corporations and government agencies.  Engineers Week 2008, February 17-23, is co-chaired by IBM and the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA.

John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company, which provides funding to nine regional competitions in addition to the National Finals, says the forward thinking the competition generates benefits the entire profession.  “Shell is pleased to support Future City because it encourages achievement in technology and engineering at an early age," said Hofmeister.  “Future City provides Shell an opportunity to identify promising young students.  As Shell continues to seek talent in the areas of math and science, we will continue to look to proven programs such as Future City to help us connect with students with those necessary skills.”

A glance at some of the essays on nanotechnology – this year’s essay is sponsored by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – offers a peek into an astounding grasp of a discipline most adults barely even know.

Heritage Middle School’s essay, for example, succinctly delves into using nanotechnology to monitor its city’s wastewater.  “To maximize efficiency,” the students write, “microelectro-mechanical machines oversee nanosensors implanted within pipes…nanosensors, robotic nanopigs, nanosponges, carbon nanotubes, nanodigibots, nanosensor stress bots, and smart table technology have been used throughout the system.”

Embracing such advanced engineering concepts underscores the rigors of the program as well as the tenacity of the students, says Future City National Director Carol Rieg.  “No matter what we give these young people, they consistently rise to the challenge,” she says.  “Future City sparks imaginations to see engineering as a critical component of their world and a viable pathway for their own futures.”

For Melissa Doan, 13, from St. Philip Neri, the school that will represent Oklahoma at National Finals, working on Future City was a glimpse into a not-too-distant horizon.  “We’re researching and writing about a technology that one day will actually be part of our lives.”

“I see lots of future engineers here,” says Dane Horna, P.E., the mentor for Davidson International Baccalaureate Middle School in Davidson, North Carolina, winners of the North Carolina regional competition.  Horna, senior consultant and vice president of S&ME, Inc., an engineering and environmental consulting firm based in Charlotte, explains that he saw how the competition evokes the very essence of engineering in young people.

“We can challenge kids to meet or exceed expectations, to do more and want to learn more,” he says.  “Future City teaches everyone that we can work out problems, and that we need to work out problems.” The results, Horna adds, were astounding.  “Can you believe 13-year-old kids are developing these ideas?”

And it’s not just the students who are feeling optimistic.  Mary Kay Peters, the teacher on the winning team from St. Alphonsus School in Greendale, Wisconsin, that state’s regional winner, notes that she’s impressed with the outlook of this new generation.  “Our future,” she says, “is in very good hands.”