March Industry Luncheon

"Hyperloop: Transportation of the Future... Imagine a trip to Austin in 15 minutes!"

Speaker: Steven Duong, AICP, an urban designer with AECOM

Imagine getting from Dallas to Austin in less than 15 minutes. Improbable? Maybe, but not impossible. Steven Duong, AICP, an urban designer with AECOM, is a consultant for the Texas Hyperloop proposal, which touts a revolutionary new train system described as a cross between a Condorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table.

Developed by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the Hyperloop is essentially a futuristic train based on the very high speed transit (VHST) system proposed in 1972 combining a magnetic levitation train and a low pressure transit tube. It evolves some of the original ideas of VHST, but still uses tunnels and pods or capsules to move from place to place. Musk has likened it to a vacuum tube system in a building used to move documents from place to place.

Steven, whose focus is on urban resilience, transportation planning, and master planning, will discuss the proposed Hyperloop and much more at the March meeting. He also serves as the director of the North Central Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association, as a member of the Urban Design Advisory Council for the City of Dallas, as a professor with UTA's College of Planning and Landscape Architecture, and was identified as a Top 20 Under 40 Top Young Professional for Engineering News Record in 2017.

Thank you to our Luncheon Co-Sponsors: