Pavement to Produce: Revolutionizing Urban Food Systems

In the heart of our cities, where concrete reigns and green space is scarce, a group of engineering students at the University of San Diego (USD) Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering is reimagining the possibilities for urban food production. 

Driven by a passion for sustainability and innovation, their senior design entrepreneurship project — Pavement to Produce — connects food providers, landowners and hydroponic farms through their innovative technology to “revolutionize the local production and distribution of food.” 

Team member and double major Mackenzie Guy ‘25 (IntE: sustainability, environmental studies) shares: “This project is especially important to me as it has given me the opportunity to combine my environmental studies major and my integrated engineering major. It’s one of the first opportunities where I’ve been able to fully apply knowledge from both disciplines in a meaningful and impactful way.”

The  team’s journey began as a response to three pressing urban challenges: the urban heat island (UHI) effect, limited access to healthy produce and food insecurity.  Their vision is ambitious: to transform cities from pavement-laden landscapes into networks of green, productive spaces that support local economies, improve public health and combat climate change. 

The UHI effect occurs when cities experience higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas due to heat-absorbing surfaces, such as asphalt and concrete. With cities growing rapidly, traditional agriculture is becoming “less viable due to space constraints and food supply chains are often vulnerable to disruptions.”

The team estimates that regreening 50% of the nation’s parking space would “remove 1.2 million tons of CO2 and manage more than 2 billion m3 of stormwater runoff and mitigate heat retention in urban areas.” They also discovered that hydroponics — a soil-free farming method that uses nutrient-rich water — uses up to 90% less water than conventional farming, making it ideal for urban areas with water constraints. 

With these statistics in mind, Pavement to Produce developed a prototype that proposes regreening parking lots by leveraging hydroponics to transform those spaces into productive green infrastructure. Hydroponics is particularly suited for urban environments with limited space, making it possible to grow fresh food in locations where conventional farming is often not feasible.

Grant Carey ‘25 (IntE: sustainability) elaborates: “This project has been the perfect culmination of my liberal arts and engineering education at USD. I have had to draw on concepts learned across a broad range of subject areas in order to design and build a prototype that serves as the foundation for an entrepreneurial project, moving beyond college to developing a startup centered on our canopy farming structure. I have loved the challenges of pulling together the electrical, statics and sustainability aspects of this project to build, wire and grow plants within a greenhouse.”

Beyond food production, these systems can also serve as community gardens and educational tools, fostering sustainability awareness. By repurposing vast paved areas, Pavement to Produce offers a scalable, cost-effective model for urban agriculture, addressing both climate resilience and food justice in densely populated cities across the nation.

“Our project gave me the opportunity to merge sustainability with automation in a real-world setting,” explains Fahad Bastaki ‘25 (EE).” Designing and implementing various systems for our prototypes challenged me to think beyond the technical aspects, but also the community impact, scalability and future applications. It’s been one of the most meaningful hands-on experiences of my academic journey!” 

As cities worldwide grapple with the challenges of urbanization, the need for innovative solutions to environmental and food security issues has never been more urgent. The Pavement to Produce entrepreneurial project offers a forward-thinking approach to empower communities to provide fresh, nutritious food in their communities while fostering economic resilience.

“As an engineer, sharing an unproven idea can feel incredibly vulnerable,” admits double major Valentina Vargas ‘25 (IntE, architecture). “But I’ve learned that when you believe in something and surround yourself with the right community, like-minded people will rise to meet the challenge with you. Today, the girl who once stood alone at the podium now stands with three incredible teammates, engineers and friends united by a shared vision for a more sustainable and hopeful future.”

From pavement to produce, the team is proving that innovation, collaboration and a commitment to sustainability has the power to reshape our cities — one parking lot at a time.

— By Michelle Sztupkay