Illinois 

Future City starts with a question – How can we make the world a better place?  Teams spend approximately four months creating cities that could exist at least 100 years in the future. Each city must incorporate a solution to an annual design challenge.  In January, teams present their projects to judges at Regional Competitions throughout the participating International regions for 2025–2026. Teams who earn the top spot at their Regionals will participate in the 2026 Finals.

To answer it, middle school students imagine, research, design, and build future cities that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. The 2025-2026 Future City Competition will challenge your middle school students to research, design, and create a city that exists 100 years in the future. This year, teams will design a city that eliminates food waste from farm to table and keeps your citizens healthy and
safe. 

While humans once grew food wherever they lived, today most of our food travels to us from far away. Modern cities make it easy to get groceries from the store—but at a cost. The way we grow, package, and throw away food creates problems for our planet. In fact, about 40% of all food produced ends up wasted, even as 783 million people around the world go hungry. Consider all the steps it takes to get food to your plate: farmers grow it, trucks move it, stores sell it, and finally, you eat it—or maybe you don’t. But wasted food doesn’t just disappear in a landfill—food waste takes up 28% of the world’s agricultural area, uses 25% of all water used by agriculture each year, and creates about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why cities of the future need to rethink how food moves through our lives. One big idea is using the principles of circular economy along the food production pathway —a system where instead of throwing things away, we find ways to reuse, recycle, or repurpose them. In recent years, engineers, scientists, farmers, manufacturers, and city planners are coming up with exciting new solutions like using waste products to feed livestock, designing reusable food packaging, and using smart bins that turn scraps into compost or energy. These systems don’t just eliminate waste, they protect the planet and keep communities strong.

This flexible, cross-curricular educational program allows students to do what engineers do—identify problems, brainstorm ideas, design solutions, test, retest, build, and share their results. Future City is an engaging way to build students’ 21st-century STEAM skills.

Throughout the fall, participants work in teams of at least three students, an educator, and a volunteer mentor to bring their vision of their future city to life. They will imagine what it’s like like to walk down the main street of a city 100 years in the future. What do they see, hear, smell, and feel? From this starting point, they will design a futuristic city with innovative solutions to eliminate food waste from farm to table and keeps your citizens healthy and safe.

This year’s challenge asks students to address Farm to Table solutions.  As the middle school students create their cities, they will:

• Use the engineering design process and project management steps to take on a large-scale project;
• Apply their math and science knowledge to a real-world problem
• Strengthen their teamwork and problem-solving skills;
• And more!

For more information about the competition, contact Kat Au or Duana Love at illinois@futurecity.org.