Engineering Tomorrow
Engineering Tomorrow is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides no-cost virtual and hands-on engineering labs, paired with professional engineer mentorship, to U.S. high school students across all 50 states, with a focus on underrepresented populations in engineering.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersWashington, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Engineering Tomorrow does
Engineering Tomorrow is a 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2014 by William Woodburn, a former CEO of GE Infrastructure and Founding Partner of Global Infrastructure Partners. The organization delivers no-cost virtual and hands-on engineering labs to U.S. high school students across all 50 states, with a deliberate focus on underrepresented populations in engineering — female, Black/Hispanic, and low-income students (90%+ from public schools, 49% qualifying for free/reduced lunch). It reports engagement with 1.1M+ students, 14,300+ teachers, 6,000+ participating schools, and 3.0M+ individual labs completed.
The core product is a library of 24 professionally engineered lab curricula covering topics including aerodynamics, AI, robotics, renewable energy, semiconductors, green hydrogen, electric vehicles, biomedical engineering, and clean water. Labs are delivered via pre-recorded workshops, live guest speakers, and customized engineer meet-ups hosted on Zoom, paired with physical lab kits shipped free of charge from a Wisconsin distribution center. The technology stack is intentionally lightweight and built on standard third-party tools (Zoom, MIT App Inventor, Google Colab, Tinkercad, mBlock, Salesforce, MailChimp, Stripe) rather than proprietary software. The platform is complemented by Lab Day Events, which are live virtual field trips featuring industry keynotes (e.g., NASA astronauts, Mercedes F1 engineers).
The business model is donation- and grant-funded: Engineering Tomorrow charges schools, teachers, and students nothing, and revenue is sourced from individual donors, corporate sponsorships, and foundations. Go-to-market is direct-to-educator, with teachers requesting labs through a self-serve website registration flow. Distribution leverages professional engineer volunteers, college student mentors, and a board that includes National Academy of Engineering members and senior executives from General Motors, Ameresco, Global Infrastructure Partners (BlackRock), Xylem, and Eaton. A UK sister organization, Inspiring Engineers, was established in 2026 as an independent international extension of the model.
Engineering Tomorrow firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Engineering Tomorrow
- Legal name
- Engineering Tomorrow
- Website
- https://engineeringtomorrow.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Engineering Tomorrow is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides no-cost virtual and hands-on engineering labs, paired with professional engineer mentorship, to U.S. high school students across all 50 states, with a focus on underrepresented populations in engineering.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Engineering Tomorrow industry classification
Industry- Product category
- K-12 Engineering Education Services
- NAICS
- Technical and Trade Schools (6115)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Virtual Labs, Remote Labs & Hands-On Practice Tools (EDAFABAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Engineering Design & Project-Based Learning Programs (EDAMADAB), Simulation-Based Learning & Virtual Labs (EDAGAEAG), Hands-on Science Exploration & Experiments (Lab Kits, Science Clubs) (EDAMABAA)
Keywords
Where Engineering Tomorrow is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Washington
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Engineering Tomorrow business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others
Revenue model
- Donations and Charitable Contributions: As a 501(c)(3) public charity, Engineering Tomorrow operates primarily through donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. The organization explicitly states they rely on the generosity of supporters to keep experiences accessible.
- Corporate Sponsorships: Corporate partners sponsor specific labs or programs, providing funding in exchange for association with the educational mission and access to emerging talent pipeline.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | No-cost labs for all participating schools |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Engineering Tomorrow product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Engineering Tomorrow provides a portfolio of no-cost virtual and hands-on engineering labs to U.S. high school students, delivered in partnership with their schools. Labs cover 22+ engineering disciplines (aerodynamics, AI, robotics, renewable energy, biomedical engineering, etc.), are designed by professional engineers, and are paired with physical kits shipped free of charge plus live virtual Zoom sessions with working engineers. The organization also runs Lab Day virtual field-trip events featuring keynote speakers from NASA and Mercedes F1.
Product overview
Engineering Tomorrow is a nonprofit educational organization offering a single unified platform of no-cost virtual engineering labs for high school students. The core offering consists of 24 distinct engineering lab modules covering topics from Aerodynamics to Sound & Acoustics, each designed by professional engineers. Labs are delivered in multiple formats: pre-recorded workshops, live guest speakers, and customized engineer meet-ups via Zoom. Students receive hands-on experience with real-world engineering challenges, and each lab is paired with virtual Zoom sessions hosted by professional engineers. The portfolio includes specialized labs in emerging technology areas (AI, robotics, semiconductors), environmental engineering (renewable energy, clean water, green hydrogen), and traditional engineering disciplines (bridges, aerodynamics, electric vehicles). All labs are provided at no cost to schools, teachers, or students, funded through donations and corporate partnerships.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Aerodynamics Lab Students learn about the forces an airplane experiences in flight and maximize lift of paper airplane designs to optimize lift-to-drag ratios. Targeted at high school students exploring aerospace engineering.
- Algorithms & Machine Learning Lab Students are introduced to machine learning and the iterative engineering design process by designing, constructing, and testing a catapult and developing mathematical models. Targeted at high school students.
- Artificial Intelligence Lab Students explore AI used in everyday tools and use prompting to create art, code a game, and train a custom chatbot. Targeted at high school students learning about AI capabilities and limitations.
- Astrodynamics Lab Students learn about spacecraft, launch vehicles, and orbits, and test physics and vehicle design with balloon rocket experiments. Targeted at high school students exploring space engineering.
- Biomechanical Systems Lab Students learn about eye tracking history and assistive technology by building mechanical eye models and deriving trigonometric equations. Targeted at high school students.
- Biomedical Engineering Lab Students play the role of biomedical engineers to investigate sunlight and human body characteristics and design a treatment for Grover's disease. Targeted at high school students.
- Bridges Lab Students discover scientific and real-world aspects of bridges and design and test their own bridge structures. Targeted at high school students exploring civil engineering.
- Clean Water Lab Students learn about the water treatment process and design a small-scale filtration system applying fundamentals of wastewater treatment. Targeted at high school students.
- Cybersecurity Lab Students learn about phishing, malware, hacking, and AI and practice encryption techniques to hide information. Targeted at high school students exploring cybersecurity.
- Electric Vehicles Lab Students learn the history, development, and design of electric vehicles and build their own electric vehicle. Targeted at high school students.
- Genetics Lab Students receive a hands-on introduction to bioinformatics, using symptoms and biological data to diagnose patients and learn about disease-related proteins. Targeted at high school students.
- Green Hydrogen Lab Students learn about climate change impacts and engineer decarbonization solutions by building an electrolysis cell to produce green hydrogen. Targeted at high school students.
- Medical Devices Lab Students learn 3D printing in medicine through prosthetics, including E-NABLE, CAD design, and prosthetic finger design. Targeted at high school students.
- Optimizing Networks Lab Students learn about networks and solve the Traveling Salesman Problem with options for block coding in mBlock or Python programming in Google Colab. Targeted at high school students.
- Packaging Engineering Lab Students explore cushioning and impact protection by designing packages to protect potato chips while balancing protection, cost, and environmental impact. Targeted at high school students.
- Pharmaceuticals Lab Students learn about drug delivery in the body and design a small-scale staged release drug delivery system using encapsulation techniques. Targeted at high school students.
- Product Engineering Lab Students learn manufacturing types including 3D printing and use Tinkercad to design interlocking puzzle pieces. Targeted at high school students.
- Remediated Sites Lab Students model oil spills and conduct cleanup experiments while learning how engineers across disciplines monitor and clean up contaminated sites. Targeted at high school students.
- Renewable Energy Lab Students learn the benefits of renewable vs. non-renewable energy and build solar-powered and wind-powered turbine prototypes. Targeted at high school students.
- Robotics Lab Students learn coding basics including variables, loops, and conditionals through block coding to navigate a virtual robot through mazes. Targeted at high school students.
- Scientific Computing Lab Students learn how data is sourced, analyzed, and visualized using Python in Google Colab to graph CSV data on topics of interest. Targeted at high school students.
- Semiconductors Lab Students learn about integrated circuit production by performing electroplating experiments and exploring the role of semiconductors in modern electronics. Targeted at high school students.
- Smart Circuits Lab Students learn embedded systems development through Tinkercad simulation of an Arduino Uno device and Arduino programming. Targeted at high school students.
- Software Engineering Lab Students learn to build apps using MIT App Inventor, gaining foundational software development skills. Targeted at high school students.
- Sound & Acoustics Lab Students learn the basics of sound, including vibrations, frequency, and pitch, and conduct experiments to reduce noise pollution. Targeted at high school students.
- Lab Day Events Live virtual field trips where classrooms nationwide join a single day of engineering immersion and innovation activities with keynote speakers and engineer meet-ups. Targeted at high schools engaging with Engineering Tomorrow.
Quantifiable outcome
- 24% of college-bound ET students enroll in engineering majors vs 6.9% nationally
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Engineering Tomorrow
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments1 record
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Engineering Tomorrow technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration12 records
AI capability6 records
Feature3 records
Engineering Tomorrow partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- BoeingcoreBoeing collaborated with Engineering Tomorrow and MIT LGO to provide a structured, hands-on aerospace engineering experience at Boeing's manufacturing plant for high school students. The collaboration included factory tours and direct engagement with Boeing engineers, aiming to address the U.S. engineering workforce shortage.
- MIT LGO (Leaders for Global Operations)coreMIT LGO collaborated with Engineering Tomorrow and Boeing on a program to turn curiosity about aerospace engineering into career pathways for high school students.
- Greenheck GroupcoreGreenheck Group partnered with Engineering Tomorrow to establish the Knox County Schools Engineering Program, supporting hands-on engineering experiences for students.
- DNVcoreDNV visited Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School alongside Engineering Tomorrow for a Renewable Energy Lab Day, bringing professional engineers and energy expertise to students.
- Engineers Without Borders USAcoreEngineering Tomorrow and Engineers Without Borders USA announced a partnership to expand engineering education access and inspire the next generation of engineers.
- General MotorscoreGeneral Motors Executive Director Telva McGruder serves on the Engineering Tomorrow Board and has provided testimonials endorsing the organization. GM supports the engineering education mission.
- Notark CorporationcoreCEO Vijay Mhetar supports Engineering Tomorrow, stating the organization helps address the engineering workforce shortage by inspiring and preparing the next generation.
- New York State Master Teacher ProgramcoreEngineering Tomorrow partnered with the NYS Master Teacher Program to expand access to engineering education experiences for students.
- Medgar Evers CollegecoreEngineering Tomorrow partnered with Medgar Evers College and Marcus Garvey Education Academy to provide engineering labs and experiences.
- XylemcoreXylem, a water technology company, has provided engineer volunteers for water-related engineering conferences and programs hosted by Engineering Tomorrow.
- Catalina Foothills High SchoolcoreEngineering Tomorrow brought engineering labs to Tucson classrooms at Catalina Foothills High School.
Scale indicators15 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Engineering Tomorrow competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Code.org: Nonprofit providing free K-12 computer science curriculum and teacher training with massive school-district reach. Comparable in free-to-schools model, teacher-led GTM, and use of industry volunteers to inspire underrepresented students into CS pathways.
- FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology): Nonprofit running K-12 robotics and engineering competitions (FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Robotics Competition) with deep corporate sponsorship and a mission to expand STEM access. Directly comparable target audience, volunteer-led delivery, and workforce-pipeline narrative.
- Citizen Schools: Nonprofit providing career-focused enrichment and apprenticeships to middle schoolers from underserved communities, with heavy corporate-volunteer engagement. Comparable in using working professionals to expose underrepresented students to STEM careers.
- Iridescent: Nonprofit delivering AI and STEM education to underserved families through Curiosity Machine and Technovation programs. Comparable in targeting underrepresented communities with emerging-tech (AI/engineering) curricula at no cost.
- MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement): Statewide nonprofit programs providing hands-on STEM enrichment to underrepresented K-12 students through school-based clubs and competitions. Comparable mission to expand STEM access for low-income and minority students via project-based engineering activities.
- Project Lead the Way: Largest U.S. provider of STEM curriculum for K-12 schools, partnering directly with districts to deliver engineering and biomedical pathways. Directly comparable in mission, school-partnership GTM, and curricular depth across engineering topics.
- MIND Research Institute: Nonprofit providing visual math and STEM programs to K-12 schools with a focus on equity and access. Comparable school-partnership GTM, no-cost model for underserved districts, and outcome-tracked STEM enrichment.
- Girls Who Code: Nonprofit focused on closing the gender gap in technology through K-12 programs, college loops, and a summer immersion program. Directly comparable diversity-focused mission, free-to-students model, and engineering/CS pipeline outcomes.
Broad incumbents
- Khan Academy: Major free online education platform with broad K-12 subject coverage including STEM. Comparable free-to-student mission and massive school reach, but much broader scope and predominantly digital/asynchronous rather than hands-on physical labs.
- Discovery Education: Large commercial provider of K-12 digital content and STEM curricula with district-licensing model. Comparable K-12 STEM content delivery but commercial (paid) rather than donation-funded, with broader scope than ET's engineer-led labs.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Engineering Tomorrow social profiles
Digital presenceEngineering Tomorrow compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Engineering Tomorrow financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Engineering Tomorrow leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles13 records
Engineering Tomorrow subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Engineering Tomorrow funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Engineering Tomorrow M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Engineering Tomorrow
What does Engineering Tomorrow do?
Engineering Tomorrow provides a portfolio of no-cost virtual and hands-on engineering labs to U.S. high school students, delivered in partnership with their schools. Labs cover 22+ engineering disciplines (aerodynamics, AI, robotics, renewable energy, biomedical engineering, etc.), are designed by professional engineers, and are paired with physical kits shipped free of charge plus live virtual Zoom sessions with working engineers. The organization also runs Lab Day virtual field-trip events featuring keynote speakers from NASA and Mercedes F1.
Is Engineering Tomorrow a public or private company?
Engineering Tomorrow is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Engineering Tomorrow founded?
Engineering Tomorrow was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Engineering Tomorrow based?
Engineering Tomorrow is headquartered in Washington, United States, in the North America region.
How does Engineering Tomorrow make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Donations and Charitable Contributions are the primary driver. The others are corporate Sponsorships.
Who are Engineering Tomorrow's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Code.org, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), Citizen Schools, Iridescent, MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement), Project Lead the Way, MIND Research Institute and Girls Who Code. Broad incumbents are Khan Academy and Discovery Education.
Does Engineering Tomorrow have an API?
No public API is recorded for Engineering Tomorrow.
What industry is Engineering Tomorrow in?
Engineering Tomorrow's product category is K-12 Engineering Education Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAFABAH, Virtual Labs, Remote Labs & Hands-On Practice Tools, with a secondary code of EDAMADAB, Engineering Design & Project-Based Learning Programs. Its NAICS code is 6115.