At this year’s Future City Engineering Competition, Stratford School teams received 20 total awards for their visionary city designs, with Stratford Fremont Middle School’s New Goldhaven team taking home the 1st place trophy! Stratford Preparatory Blackford’s Botalecce Bay team was awarded third place, Stratford San Jose Middle School’s Electreecity team placed fifth, and 17 additional Stratford School teams received awards for innovation and design (see a complete list of winners below). Kudos to all of our Stratford students and to our teachers who helped guide them in this impressive engineering endeavor! We salute your hard work, ingenuity, and willingness to take on this challenge. Your inventive ideas will continue to move our futures forward in a positive direction.

About the Future City Competition

This year’s exciting NorCal Future City Competition took place on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at our own Stratford Preparatory Blackford campus. Middle School students from schools throughout the Bay Area came to present their future city projects and show off their innovative spirit and keen engineering skills. 

Stratford’s seventh and eighth-grade engineering students undertook the challenge “Electrify Your Future.” Guided by the engineering design process, students developed futuristic cities, implementing project management methods to ensure project coherence. The competition involved writing city description essays, designing two-dimensional city maps, and constructing models using recycled materials. Deliverables detailing electrification solutions were submitted, and teams presented their futuristic cities to judges, who graded their descriptions, models, and presentations.

This year’s hands-on experience nurtured engineering skills and imparted real-world insights for future challenges, showcasing students’ creativity and commitment to a sustainable and electrifying future. To learn more about Future City, visit https://futurecity.org/

Awards: Team and School

• 1st Place: New Goldhaven – Stratford Fremont Middle School
• 3rd Place: Botalecce Bay – Stratford Preparatory Blackford
• 5th Place: Electreecity – Stratford San Jose Middle School
• Best Age-Friendly City: Ville D’Avenir – Stratford Palo Alto Middle School
  
• Best Use of Aerospace Technology in a Future City: Αυτονομοχωρι – Stafford Palo Alto Middle School
• Advancing Quality of Life for All: Halcyon City – Stratford  San Jose Middle School
  
• Most Sustainable Food Production System: Nixsolis – Stratford San Jose Middle School
  
• Best Use of Renewable Energy: Lectricus – Stratford Preparatory Blackford
• Most Innovative Design of Infrastructure Systems: Acropolis – Stratford Milpitas Great Mall Parkway
• Best Integration of Equity in Designing the Built Environment using Nature-Powered Solutions: Hydrofalls – Stratford Fremont Middle School
• Best Futuristic City: Crystelia – Stratford Milpitas Great Mall Parkway
• Best Management of Water Resources: New Iceburg – Stratford Fremont Middle School
• The City of the Future that Best Incorporates Cultural and Historical Resources:
  Euphoria – Stratford Preparatory Blackford
  
• Most Advanced Smart Grid: Aquatica – Stratford Milpitas Great Mall Parkway
• Excellence in Systems Integration: Noyau De La Terre – Stratford Milpitas Great Mall Parkway
• Best Transportation System for the Community: Mantaqua – Stratford Preparatory Blackford
• Mission Possible: Positively Impacting the Community: New Phoenix – Stratford Pleasanton Middle School
• Professional Engineering Award: Environmentropolis – Stratford San Jose Middle School
• Best Visualization of a Smart Sustainable City: 100% all the way – Stratford Pleasanton Middle School
  
• Excellence in Resilience Engineering: Lectricus – Stratford Preparatory Blackford

About Stratford’s Award-Winning Future City Teams

First Place Award-Winners: Working as a team, the Fremont Middle School students of the New Goldhaven Project designed a model of a city located along the banks of Rio Lampa in Peru inhabited by 105,000 refugees from a 2027 military crisis and projected to be 100 years from now. This Future City project is designed to be powered entirely by electricity from sources that keep its citizens and the environment healthy and safe using advanced technology and specialized infrastructure to help its population thrive and protect against natural disasters. The residents primarily commute via underground maglev trains and electric buses, live in apartments and single-family houses designed to withstand earthquakes, and rely on a sophisticated, multi-layered safety and emergency response system. The renewable power sources that fuel the city are solar panels, hydropower, and geothermal energy, supplemented by a revolutionary aneutronic nuclear fusion. Engineers of various disciplines work hand in hand to facilitate the city’s effective operation.

New Goldhaven Team: Mr. Rawlings (Teacher/Advisor) Eric Niu, Olivia Kang, Siddharth Rajkumar, Neev Shah, Tamanna Mohan, Vaishnav Nair, Taoyu She, Kevin Ho, Patrick Liu, Tara Balaji, Ansh Shenvi Priolkar, Naittick Dayal, Vaedanth Roy

Third Place Award-Winners: The engineering student team at Stratford Preparatory Blackford imagined the futuristic city of Botalecce Bay on the western shores of South Africa, emerging after the downfall of Cape Town. Celebrating its 40th year in 2124, Botalecce Bay stands as the 9th most successful city globally, blending modern technology with a deep connection to nature. Job opportunities in technology and energy management showcase a commitment to innovation and climate improvement, and the public transit system incorporates cutting-edge modes of travel, emphasizing eco-friendly solutions. Botalecce Bay focuses on electrification through green sources and employs unique infrastructure elements for energy efficiency. The team details water treatment processes, waste management, and advanced agricultural practices, highlighting the city’s dedication to sustainability and positioning Botalecce Bay as a transformative and exemplary model for a harmonious coexistence of technology and nature.

Botalecce Bay Team: Yiran Li, Marcus Chen, Isha Marthi, William Kim, Samarth Koshti, Tavish Sathish, Yixin Xu, Moosa Raza, Ruyi Wang, Anna Rohlfing, Aaron Millikan, Keyaa Shah, Aria Devasia

Congratulations to our Future City teams! We are so proud of your accomplishments. Team New Goldhaven, your Stratford family will be cheering you on in the Future City Nationals competition in Washington, D.C.!

Click here to learn more about Stratford School’s exceptional middle school programs, and visit StratfordPreparatory.com to learn more about our new high school now enrolling in San Jose, with our second location coming to Milpitas in Fall 2025.