Helping Students in North Carolina, North Texas Develop Sustainable Future Cities
Shaping the future of engineering is at the core of how Freese and Nichols operates.
A group of engineers in North Texas and North Carolina volunteered as mentors and judges for Future City, a project-based, annual learning competition that brings STEM to life. The competition inspires students to imagine, research, design and build cities of the future and teaches skills like project management, modeling, sustainable design and public speaking. Because of inclement weather, both competitions were held virtually, with teams submitting their presentations and answering judges’ questions.
For the fourth year, Kyle Horsham, a Dams and Levees engineer in our Charlotte office, mentored STEM Skool, which placed fourth at the North Carolina Regional Competition. Krista Paredas, Kristen Ross and Sydney Tickle Rodts (Transmission-Utilities) of our Raleigh office judged student essays.
Jessica Brown, Water/Wastewater (W/WW) Planning Practice Leader, Tanu Kulkarni, Asset Management Consultant and Destiny Batson, Transportation Engineer (all based in Fort Worth), volunteered as judges at the North Texas regional event.
Tanu and Destiny served as “special judges” for awards separate from the regular competition that are specific to certain practices, like best innovation in W/WW engineering or best surveying practices.
“Despite inclement weather and changing deadlines, the students adapted and persevered. Their resilience reflects one of the most important qualities required of engineers.”
– Kyle Horsham, Water Resource Design, Charlotte
This year, students were challenged to design a city that eliminates food waste from farm to table while keeping citizens healthy and safe.
Throughout the process, students collaborate to devise a solution, develop a plan, build a scale model of their city and share their project via written essay and oral presentation to a volunteer judging panel of STEM professionals.
Kyle said the STEM Skool’s futuristic reimagining of Paris, named Ville des Jardins (“City of Gardens”), transforms food waste into opportunity through innovations like an elevated hyper aerial transit system, methane biofuel conversion, year‑round urban agriculture and biodegradable packaging that converts into textiles. Their work addressed sustainability, risk and trade‑offs while integrating engineering into a resilient city.
“Overall, it was quite seamless and it was impressive how the kids adapted to having to present over Zoom.”
– Jessica Brown, Water/Wastewater Planning, Fort Worth
Freese and Nichols was also a bronze sponsor for North Carolina’s “Best Integrated Water and Food Recycling System” specialty award, recognizing a future city that reduces water waste by reusing water and minimizing the amount of water required for treatment.