Tom Conway Serves as 2026 Future City Competition Judge
Tom Conway, VSPE Vice President and Pallavi Raviprakash, Certification Program Development Manager at NICET, were two of the judges for the DiscoverE 2026 Future City Competition which took place February 14-18 in Washington, D.C.
In its 34th year, The Future City competition challenges middle and high school students to solve real-world sustainability and engineering problems. This year, model cities were to include a system that completely eliminated food waste from the farm to the fork.
Over 85,000 students worldwide registered for the competition —the highest number in the program’s history. Even more notable, a 50/50 gender split among participants was reported, a rare milestone in STEM programming.
View the competition winners HERE.
VSPE Continues to Advocate for all PEs in the Commonwealth
The VSPE Board of Directors meets bi-monthly, actively acting on behalf of our society. Advocacy for issues related to the professional engineering occupation, licensing, and project requirements in the Commonwealth are an ongoing concern. Consequently, VSPE board member Rebecca (Becky) Golden will present two items at the APELSCIDLA meeting on February 11, 2026:
- Clarification Regarding Inspection Requirements for Wastewater Projects (on behalf of VSPE)
- License PE Required by Local Ordinance to Obtain Third-Party Over-site Inspection (on behalf of NSPE)
Email Becky with any questions or comments regarding these issues.