A city of the future --"Apricus" --designed by students from Chippewa Middle School in St. Paul, MN, has won the 10th annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition(TM). Students Matthias Chan, Jo Jackson, and Alex Wrobel teamed up with their teacher, Nancy Roussin, and volunteer mentor, Stefan Gantert, a civil engineer at SEH Incorporated.

Apricus is a Latin word meaning "a sunny place." Each zone in the city contains a unique feature --for example, in the residential area, each block includes a pond and a park area. Apricus maintains a self-sufficient system in its power, water, and waste management. The city's high tech industries include Mars research, medical and science centers, and Hovercraft wind technology. A recent development in transportation is the Laser Line, a high-speed light rail system. Apricus has several farms, surrounded by green space. One of the crops grown is alfalfa, which is processed and used as biodiesel fuel.