February 14, 2025 By Derby Academy
The entire sixth grade class at Derby Academy recently competed at the Future City Eastern Regional and New England Regional Competitions at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Derby teams represented the school incredibly well, taking home several special awards and one team earning 2nd place overall.
Future City is a national project-based competition that hones our sixth graders’ project management and engineering design skills. Students research, plan, and build a city that exists 100 years in the future. This year’s theme was “Above the Current”—design a floating city and provide two innovative examples of how your floating city works and keeps its citizens healthy and safe.
Students kicked off their Future City projects in the fall as part of their Engineering and Design Course. Teams worked together to conceptualize, write about, and finally design their cities using recycled materials. After months of preparation, students took the stage at Wentworth to present in front of a panel of judges and their peers.
Students were judged by a group of professionals, including civil engineers, missile engineers, architects, and many others, on aspects of their city. Some of these aspects were: infrastructure, zoning, inclusivity, innovation, and transport systems. Derby students won big, taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the Eastern Regional Competition. The 1st place team, Derby Team 6, Zara H., Graham M., Elliott G., Zachary B., and Kinsley C., then progressed to the New England Regional Final where they took 2nd place overall.
Engineering and Design teacher Jonathan Robin, “I am proud of our Derby community for the successes we made this year, from the 6th graders for the energy and enthusiasm they brought, to the 7th and 8th graders acting as mentors and technical advisors, and not forgetting our faculty for their hard work during the model-building phase of Winter Term. I’m already getting excited for next year!”
Team 6 designed an impressive and sophisticated city called Piccola Città Luminosa (PCL), meaning “Bright Little City” in Italian. PCL is a floating city of 25,000 residents in the Venetian Lagoon, offering a sustainable solution to rising sea levels. Built on buoyant, interconnected hexagonal platforms, PCL preserves Italian culture while pioneering innovative technologies. The city is self-sufficient, generating green energy through tidal turbines and solar panels, producing fresh food in climate-controlled greenhouses and through sustainable fishing, and recycling nearly all waste. PCL offers comprehensive education, healthcare, and social services, fostering a thriving community where residents enjoy a high quality of life while minimizing environmental impact. The city’s unique design, utilizing materials like biorock and EPS, allows it to adapt to changing sea levels and weather conditions, offering a model for future sustainable urban development.
In addition to earning 2nd place overall, Derby teams also received multiple special awards including: Most Innovative Use of Recycled Material (Derby Team 1), Most Futuristic (Derby Team 2), Most Abundant Food Supply (Derby Team 3), People’s Choice, Best Land Surveying Practices (Derby Team 4), Best Public Safety Systems, Public Recreation Space (Derby Team 5), Above the Current Award (Best Essay) (Derby Team 6), Best Energy Systems, Best Presentation, Best Model, Best Waste Management System (Derby Team 7), Best Health System,, Best Education System (Derby Team 8), Most Inclusive, Best Project Plan (Derby Team 9).
