Meet Noah MacDonald!

Video Transcript

Megan Fanok 0:03: I'm here with Noah McDonald. He is a junior Computer Engineering major in Cohort Nine and he is from Circleville. He is going to be talking to us a little bit about the Envision 2040 project. So could you briefly explain the project to us?

Noah Macdonald 0:18 Yeah, so previous Institute topics that other cohorts have done had been embracing change and digital transformation. So, we already have a good foundation to build on our topic on which is envisioning 2040. Envisioning 2040 addresses how we're going to embrace change in the coming digital transformation. So as technology evolves and continues with time, we're going to look into how it's going to change and what we can do to be ready for it.

Megan Fanok 0:53 Awesome. So my first question for you, Noah, is why is the Envision 2040 project so important?

Noah Macdonald 1:00 Well, I believe this project is especially important to us as university students, because 2040 is about 19 years from now, we're going to be in the middle of our careers - it helps to know what's coming.

Megan Fanok 1:16 Definitely! So can you give us some insights on what you have gotten in exploring this topic?

Noah Macdonald 1:20 My team has done a lot of work with the future of transportation. And I think it's really cool to look into how everyone's predicting a new push for clean energy and AI-driven vehicles and a bunch of other really sci-fi-sounding things. It's just fascinating to see! A few actual insights I'd say would be: change is coming... it helps to know what it is. And the future is actually not hard to look into. It's being correct that's the challenge. We're aiming to be as correct as possible with our upcoming project.

Megan Fanok 1:59 Awesome. Yeah, it's definitely something that's a little more obscure to be correct about, but you can definitely make a lot of predictions.

Noah Macdonald 2:06 Absolutely.

Megan Fanok 2:07 So what are you going to do to prepare for the future?

Noah Macdonald 2:09 I'm personally trying to have more foresight. I'm trying to look a little further into the future, but not all the way. I'm going to try and do that more as I go on. So that I'm more prepared in case something comes up - like an emergency happens. I'm hopefully going to be a little more prepared.

Megan Fanok 2:28 Yeah, I think that is definitely a good way to do it.

Noah Macdonald 2:32 And most importantly, is to continue just being myself.

Megan Fanok 2:41 Yeah, that's awesome! Do you have anything else you'd like to say about the project and what it's meant for you?

Noah Macdonald 2:46 I find it's been a great experience digging into the year 2040 and doing a lot of research and I'm excited to share it with everyone. Expect the website to go live in mid-late April and should be fully featured by then. So expect articles, videos, maybe a podcast - I can't quite remember. Expect all kinds of different deliverables to look through and enjoy.

Megan Fanok 3:11 Awesome. Well, I'm excited to see the website. Thank you so much for meeting me with me. Sorry. Thank you so much for meeting with me. It was great talking to you about the project!

Noah Macdonald 3:20 Yeah! It was it was great talking with you.