Summary

On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Dr. Richard Ham, a seasoned transportation executive with four decades of experience in security safety operations and administration compliance and enforcement. Dr. Ham’s list of expertise and accomplishments is long and includes but is not limited to the associate director of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas, where he co-leads the largest graduate program at the University of Arkansas. Throughout the episode, James and Dr. Ham talked about the progression of drones within the next couple of years and the mobility space in Bentonville. 

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Show Notes:

(1:13) Introduction to Dr. Ham

(3:00) About Dr. Ham

(5:37) Dr. Ham’s Passion for Aviation

(8:36) The Progression of Drones

(25:29) The UP.Summit

(34:17) University of Arkansas Planning Grant

(37:12) Fully Autonomous Trucks

(40:09) Presence of Mobility Companies in Bentonville

(45:39) How to Get Involved in the Mobility Space

(57:13) Closing Questions

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‍Links

James Bell

Dr. Richard Ham

Quotes

“...if you want to deliver something to Jonesborough, there’s just no good way to get there because it’s pretty rural…the ability to have an automated cargo route that would make the flight in an hour and a half and then turn and work it the other way. It starts to connect communities in a way that nobody really thought about.” - Dr. Richard Ham, (16:14)

“If you think of these small towns, it affects how commerce happens. If you can get something in three hours then do you have to have as many brick and mortars? There’s gonna be a discussion about that and some really smart people that think that way in retail and wholesale are gonna think about how we do distribution if this is our model now.” - Dr. Richard Ham, (22:16)

“We’re gonna talk about where we are with our ability to accept manufacturing and workforce readiness…If you don’t have that foundation, you end up with a lot of voices, but there’s never a consolidated voice that people will look to when they are looking to come here.” - Dr. Richard Ham, (32:58)

“Developing that framework and then knowing where to step up from there is really important because if you don’t, then when you start making some decisions later on, you’re going to wish you’d have done that differently because it would have been better.” - Dr. Richard Ham, (38:08)