Future City Challenges Nearly 100,000 Students to Engineer Wildfire-Resilient Communities
DiscoverE's Future City Competition for 2026-27 will challenge nearly 100,000 middle and high school students to design communities capable of preventing, withstanding, and recovering from urban wildfires.
Washington D.C. – The DiscoverE's Future City Competition has launched its 2026–27 season, challenging close to 100,000 middle and high school students to design communities prepared for urban wildfires. The program aims to integrate wildfire preparedness and resilience into STEM education nationwide.
Under the theme "Fire Resilient Future," students are tasked with engineering a city set 100 years in the future. The challenge focuses on the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), where residential areas meet natural environments, and requires students to develop solutions for preventing, protecting against, and recovering from wildfires.
Working in teams with educators and STEM mentors, students will research the issues, design their future cities, build physical models, and present their solutions. Potential innovations may include fire-resistant building materials, enhanced infrastructure, land-use planning, early detection systems, and post-fire recovery strategies.
Regional competitions will be held across the United States, with winning teams advancing to the Future City Finals in Washington D.C. in February 2027. Farmers Insurance is the National Theme Sponsor for this initiative, which seeks to foster engineering skills and problem-solving abilities among young students.