A design software leader is rethinking the construction methods and materials for Hyperloop Alpha, the high-speed mass-transit proposal that shoots passenger-filled capsules suspended on air cushions through low-pressure tubes. The new design pushes for yet-to-be-realized advances in construction and composites technology.
"We're almost obliged to check it out," says Jordan Brandt, Autodesk technology futurist, about the company's responsibility as an industry leader to weigh in on the Hyperloop proposal. "I'm a mad scientist," adds Brandt, who created the 3D cloud collaboration technology Glue that got the attention of Autodesk, which acquired both his former company, Horizontal Systems, and Brandt himself.