Imagine Tomorrow unites educators, scholars, and industry leaders to teach students of all backgrounds and high school grade levels how to translate ideas into results.
At the outset, the competition asks teams of Washington high school students to address a topic—this year, energy sustainability—by answering any of four challenges: technological, behavioral, design, or multidisciplinary. With these challenges, we aim to invite collaboration among leaders of today and tomorrow, enable students to realize how much they can achieve, and drive innovation that changes lives.
- Engaging future innovators. Students find ways to shift the public mindset, reshape governance and policy, reengineer technologies, and redesign communities and ways of life. The competition inspires many students to pursue a college degree.
- Fostering collaboration. The competition shows students how collaborative actions make a difference in meeting the challenge of energy production and use in the 21st century.
- Supporting educators. High school teachers inspire students to think bigger, gather information from diverse resources, and jointly develop new ideas.
- Strengthening our community. Imagine Tomorrow creates connections among students, research faculty, and industry leaders. Students build confidence in their ability to make a positive difference in their communities.
- Raising awareness of key issues. Imagine Tomorrow builds awareness of important issues among our state's students, educators, and general population.
2009
“Imagine Tomorrow drives us to think of big solutions to big challenges. It brings together the skills needed to solve important problems.”
—Miles Drake, senior vice president of research and development, Weyerhaeuser
2008
"The energy challenge is both the greatest threat and the greatest opportunity facing humankind in the half-century. Washington State University’s Imagine Tomorrow high school competition encourages kids across the state to think about and tackle energy issues. What is particularly exciting is the level of out-of-the-box thinking.”