Measures of Success

FC at FWMSH

Since it's inception in 1991-92, the Future City Competition has become the nation's largest not-for-profit engineering education program.

The Hall of Fame celebrates outstanding alumni who have found success in engineering and technology fields. Surveys of current and past participants confirm that the program is accomplishing its mission and goals to promote an interest in math, science, technology, and engineering through hands-on real-world applications.

  • More than 60 percent of students say that the program helped them improve critical skills;
  • More students are interested in studying math, science, technology and engineering than any other subject;
  • More than half say they are interested in choosing engineering as a career.

North Texas Successes

1999-2000 was the first year for the DFW Regional Competition. The program has grown significantly from that point - to become the North Texas Regional in 2003-04 and one of the largest regional competitions in the nation.

In 2009-10, the North Texas Regional program:

  • Celebrated its 10th anniversary;
  • Registered 28 public schools from 22 districts, 5 private schools and 1 home schools;
  • Attracted teams from as far away as Lubbock and Tyler;
  • Involved over 500 students, more than half of whom were female or minority;
  • Evaluated designs of 38 teams from 18 schools that completed the program and presented future cities to the judges;
  • Continues to attract students to engineering - (from post-competition surveys) more than 50 percent of students are interested in studying math, science, engineering and technology and are considering engineering as a career;
  • Is entirely run by volunteers: more than 100 professionals from over a dozen professional disciplines contributed better than 1000 hours to mentoring, judging and organizing the annual program;
  • Had media coverage by the Denton Record-Chronical, Frisco Enterprise, Killeen Daily Herald, Longview News Journal and NeighborsGo.com (circulation about 80,000) and KDFW (FOX) TV.
  • Displayed Future City models in E-Week exhibitions at the Dallas Nature and Science Museum and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

From one of our first North Texas competitors in her application to engineering school:

My interest in engineering first developed when I participated in the National Engineers Week Future City Competition, where working to create a future city for the competition inspired me to explore the engineering field.