Matt Cox, Joe Hill and Nathaniel Poschel, students at Queen of Angels School, Roswell, dreamed up the futuristic city of Aqua Serenity.

Their ideas won the seventh-graders first place at the Georgia Regional Future City competition on Saturday, Jan. 26.

Aqua Serenity depends on the precious resource of water. It is used for transportation, garbage disposal, energy, hydration and entertainment. The city developed a new technology called Purex3 to harness storm water runoff. This natural filtration system is strategically placed anywhere that water tends to pool and, after filtration, is distributed throughout the city for the needs of the citizens.

More than 100 teams from 29 middle schools competed for top honors at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.

Queen of Angels School sent four teams to the competition and the other three teams won nine specialty awards. In addition to the first place honor, Aqua Serenity also won the People’s Choice Award.

The first-place team was mentored by Tara Trostel, an engineering student from Georgia Tech, and Peggy DeGance, a Queen of Angels teacher. The team moves on to the national competition in Washington, D.C., during National Engineers Week, Feb. 15-20.

This is the eleventh year Queen of Angels School has participated in the Future City program.

Trostel said, “It has been an amazing opportunity to witness the accomplishments of these young men. They combined creativity and imagination with an impressive work ethic to accomplish great things as a team. Matt, Joe and Nathaniel flourish when presented with new challenges and their innovative urban design reflects this.”