Pierre Santoni0:09
So we're living in a fantastic city, we live in a fantastic emirate, and in a part of the world that is extremely dynamic. So we get to witness some of the most advanced trends in our industry materializing and literally taking shape in front of us here. And we have a few examples around the floor of some of those big mobility ideas and prototypes. And this is the beginning of the exhibition, so I haven't had time to walk around too much, but I look forward to it. And we know of some of them; there are some other ones that we look forward to discovering. We're, as I said, very fortunate to live here. There are some great applications. We have a perfect environment for innovation, for dynamism, for disruption here in Dubai. And we're in a region of the world that embraces technology, embraces all these new ideas. And we've got great visionary leadership with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, and that helps us to bring those innovative ideas to the Middle East and to Dubai in particular. So what are we looking at at the moment? The rate of disruption in our industry in general terms has accelerated tremendously over the last few years. We see new ideas, new options coming up any day. I came here using an electric vehicle, a Tesla Uber car, which wasn't available a month ago. Uber, sorry, Tesla entered the UAE about six months ago, and now we've got cars everywhere. It's absolutely fantastic. So I think the whole operation of electric vehicles has already disrupted the industry, is already disrupting the way people think about their space. At the advertisement line, use retail in the mall yesterday, I saw charging stations for four Tesla cars. That's something that wasn't there a month ago. So we already see some of that. We're also, in broader terms, anything to do with automated vehicle, I think it's going to be one of the biggest initiatives we're going to see taking shape here in Dubai. His Highness has requested and mandated that 25% of trips would be smart and automated. So we're already working on some of those. But I think we see that Hyperloop One is one of the biggest initiatives we see taking shape. We're fortunate to be involved in that and be one of their technology partners.
At Parsons, we place a lot of value on innovation, which is one of our core values. We have tie-ups with several organizations leading research in this domain, in the domains that we're involved in. And it is true that we have a very wide-ranging, very holistic view over what is happening in our industry and in the various sectors that we work in. For example, we're part of the industrial liaison program with MIT in Cambridge. I was just over there last month. We are meeting with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. We have a number of those feelers out there to really understand what is going to be driving the world literally in the next few years in the future, and how we at Parsons can get involved in that. So we already have been involved in some of these: 3D printing, high-definition surveying. We're looking at applications for safety, safety surveys done entirely in an automated way, and then connected with an AI brain that will save a lot of time and generate reports automatically that would flag up issues that maybe the human wouldn't necessarily identify immediately. So our role in this is really to work with our clients, to work with the institutions and our partners in the industry as well, to bring as many of these innovations as we can, to foster the dialogue, to be the catalysts of change. And that's a big driver, I think, not only for us but for all of the actors in the industry.
So an event like this is a fantastic opportunity for us to get involved with actors from all around the world, all around the region, to discuss ideas, to share some of our thoughts, and to really get a feel for how the community as a whole internationally is transforming itself and is regenerating itself. And we want to be a part of it. We are, that's why we're here as a platinum sponsor, and that's why we're going to continue to be involved in these events.
