FPA Celebrates Innovation at the 2026 Future City Philadelphia Competition
French & Parrello Associates (FPA) proudly sponsored the 2025-2026 Future City Philadelphia Competition, an annual STEM program in which middle school teams, guided by teacher and engineer mentors, design futuristic cities and present their solutions to industry judges. This year’s theme of “Farm to Table” challenged students to apply circular economy principles to reduce food waste and strengthen food security across production, transportation, consumption, and disposal. The result was a range of innovative ideas, including urban farming networks, advanced composting systems, sustainable supply chains, and food recovery strategies.
As part of the competition requirements, students created a detailed scale model of their city featuring at least one working component, wrote an essay explaining how their city addressed the theme, and delivered a presentation to judges. FPA is proud that two members of the firm’s Camden, New Jersey office were in attendance: Sara Irick, PE, CME, TDM-CP, PMP and Aubrey Blackman. Sara served as a judge while Aubrey served on both the Sponsorship Committee and the Publications Committee and acted as Master of Ceremonies for the final presentations, helping to guide the program and create an engaging experience for students, mentors, and judges alike.
FPA was especially honored to present the Larry French Educational Excellence Award, which is an award sponsored by FPA to recognize a team that demonstrates exceptional educational achievement, creativity, and thoughtful engagement with engineering concepts. This year’s award was presented to E.N. Peirce Middle School, whose students stood out for their strong understanding of the challenge and their ability to translate complex ideas into a well-developed and compelling future city. Their city featured a gondola gliding between treetop homes, a waterfall-powered energy system, and even a full water-filtration setup complete with a fish farm. As a Highway and Traffic Engineer, Sara had especially appreciated that E.N. Pierce Middle School was the only team to build an actual scaled bicycle model, complete with toothpaste cap wheels. “We love seeing young minds dream big, build creatively, and engineer the future,” said Sara Irick, PE, CME, TDM-CP, PMP.
Supporting Future City Philadelphia and sponsoring the Larry French Educational Excellence Award reflects FPA’s ongoing commitment to STEM education and to inspiring the next generation of engineers, designers, and problem-solvers. We congratulate all participating teams for their hard work and innovation, and we are proud to celebrate the accomplishments of the students and educators who made this year’s competition such a success.
