FINAL SCRIPT
JM1: Not down with that…
On election day Austin voters approved a $720 million mobility bond under proposition 1. According to moveaustinforward.com, “The Smart Corridor plan will significantly address congestion, increase safety, and provide more transportation choices for Austinites.” A couple weeks ago I spoke with James Mcguiness, co-founder of the Texas Guadaloop. a team of graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Texas that have spent the past year and half working on a hyperloop pod, part of a new theoretical mode of transportation that would enable you to travel from Austin to Dallas in just 20 minutes.
The hyperloop is the brainchild of billionaire entrepreneur Elon musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX. Musk was disappointed when California approved a high speed rail project to build a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But instead of simply opposing the project, Musk released a 57-page document commonly referred to as the White paper where he proposed the idea of a 5th mode of transportation. Something he called the Hyperloop.
Here’s Mcguiness to explain the idea.
JM2: Hyperloop explained…
Musk decided to open source the development of his new idea. McGuiness was beginning his masters at UT when he heard about the SpaceX Hyperloop pod competition.
JM3: Exactly what you go to engineering school for…
Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of interest. McGuiness said there were anywhere from 20-40 students both undergraduate and graduate across multiple disciplines working to develop their design.
JM4: MagLev vs. Airbearing technology
Here is Patryk Radyjowaski, co-founder and lead designer of the Texas Guadaloop pod to explain why they chose to use airbearing technology over the more widely used magnetic levitation.
PR1: Motivated by the future of this technology…
If you’re confused that ok. I was too. It’s difficult to conjure an image of technology that you aren’t familiar with. For the hyperloop itself you can think of the pneumatic tubes you use to send a bank teller a check at the drive thru. To visualize how airbearing technology moves the pod through the tube picture an air hockey table. Now imagine that instead of the table generating air, the puck generates the air causing it to levitate. Here’s another member of the Texas Guadaloop team, electrical engineering graduate student, Vik Parthiban to elaborate:
VP1: A plane on the ground…
The design weekend portion of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition took place at Texas A&M in January of this year. Here is Texas Guadaloop’s head of business development Deborah Navarro to describe the experience.
DN1: Presenting to SpaceX…
Only 30 teams were selected to advance on to the build phase of the competition. The Texas Guadaloop was not one of them. But that doesn’t mean they’ve given up. Here’s Mcguiness on what they’ve been up to since.
JM5: We call ourselves scrappers…
The practical implications of this technology are still a long way off. But Parthiban is optimistic about its prospects.
VP2: Dream scenario…
For more information on the Texas Guadaloop and to follow their progress check out their twitter and facebook pages. My name is Hailey O’Brien and I’m shocked you made it this far.
November 26, 2016 at 7:14 pm
Hailey,
I give you such huge points for finding a really fascinating story and wrestling with new tools and technology to tell it. You have a great voice for radio and your script is well done. In fact, your narration and writing is the strongest part of this story. You explain things clearly, with images, and you sound confident and relaxed with this technical material. My two main observations for improvement are:
(1) Pace: The story starts to drag with the quotes from your interviewees. They are too long. Choose the best quotes (just like print) and ruthlessly edit out what you don’t need. I would also open the story with you setting the stage. I think the story is actually too long and, if you listen, you can probably hear how dramatically trimming the interviews would have automatically helped with the length and shape of the story.
(2) Stay quiet during your interviews. We don’t want to hear you on tape when we are expecting to hear quotes from those you have interviewed. Also, be careful not to talk over the folks you are interviewing.
(3)Think about where you are interviewing, how to minimize ambient noise. It’s distracting to hear conversation and chatter in the background.
The overall message is to think carefully about the story you are trying to tell and then ruthlessly gather and use ONLY what you need to tell that story.
Overall, a promising first effort with radio journalism. I really encourage you to do more.
JH