SOUTHFIELD – A city of the future, Detroit-FC (Detroit Future City), engineered by students
from St. John Lutheran School in Rochester won second place today at the 2022 Future City
Finals. 41 teams from around the world participated in the special online celebration. This
year’s theme challenged students to design a waste-free city that uses the principles of a
circular economy.
In addition to winning second place, the St. John team also won the Best Use of Renewable
Energy Award sponsored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers and a
prize of $5,000 for their school’s STEM program sponsored by Shell USA, Inc.
St. John won the Michigan Regional Future City competition Jan. 25, beating 14 other
teams at the online event. St. John has won the regional competition, organized by The
Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD), the past five years in a row.
St. John’s city, called Detroit-FC, was the creation of Caleb Raikes, Ava Thomas and Joshua
Wallace and a team of other St. John’s students, guided by educators Dr. Linda Gerhardt and
Tim Grothaus and mentors Tim and Michelle Koss.
Future City, a program of DiscoverE, is a project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. The project transforms students’ understanding of engineering and strengthens their teamwork, problem-solving and project management skills. DiscoverE is a nonprofit organization that runs National Engineers Week and a host of other programs to inspire the next generation of engineers,
The competition engages more than 45,000 middle school students each year throughout the
United States and abroad. Students participate as teams, guided by an educator and a
volunteer STEM mentor. Teams spend approximately four months creating cities that could
exist at least 100 years in the future. Each city must incorporate a solution to a design challenge
that changes each year. Next year’s challenge will focus on climate change.
Presenting sponsors of the Michigan Regional Future City Competition are the DTE Foundation
and the Ford Motor Company Fund.
For information on how you can become a part of Future City, visit
www.esd.org/programs/futurecity, or contact Allison Marrs, ESD Future City program manager,
at amarrs@esd.org or 248-353-0735, ext. 121.
Founded in 1895, The Engineering Society of Detroit is a multi-disciplinary society uniting
engineering, scientific and allied professions to enhance professional development and foster
excitement about math and science to produce our next generation of leaders. Serving this
generation of engineers and fostering the next. For more information, visit www.esd.org.