[Applause]
did you know that the adultery let the
child cry tree to grow in a slower
manner than it would like to this has an
efficiency reason if if the if the tree
is growing faster than the proportion of
the wood versus air inside the structure
is not fine and the tree can not
withstand for the weather conditions we
live in an environment where we are
always encouraged to speed speed and
change of course it might be a good idea
but also it should imply some efficiency
my message today is very clear speed is
killing the planet it's time to focus on
efficiency of course I'm not a hypocrite
here and I don't live in a little topic
word I just flew to Vietnam for a tech
convention and actually there is no
other way to to to travel there so but
you know the amount of co2 emissions
that we emit by a single passenger it's
harmful for our environment I do believe
that the future of transportation in
general is based on electrical energy
which is more efficient and more
sustainable when we are talking here
about electrical energy in
transportation we have two options
either we have a vehicle which is
powered by the grid so are connected to
the grid and we take the power from
there or we're actually the investment
of the under infrastructure is very
expensive all we're talking here about a
smart energy autonomous vehicle which
can be a subject for optimization
problems
I'm giving you here an example like we
are talking here about the electrical
cars drones or even nowadays electrical
rockets of course there are many trends
in mobility and I'm giving you like one
sim one
simple example regarding the the
infrastructure connection so we have
your electrical car you go to the train
station you go after you travel for a
while you take your Hyperloop and you
arrive at your destination by the way
I'm here to talk a bit also about the
Hyperloop because actually my name it's
kind of branded in the Hyperloop
industry and I'm going to explain you
very simple at hybrid means Hyperloop
it's a new mode of transportation which
involves two different parts so we're
talking here about a capsule like a
train enough in a low-pressure
environment let's say five to ten
percent of the earth atmosphere due to
the fact that in this low-pressure
environment like a tube there are there
is no friction here we might have many
advantages many people think that one of
them the most important advantage is the
speed I do believe that the most
important advantage of Hyperloop is the
energy efficiency and the grams of co2
emissions per passengers per kilometer
we can define Hyperloop as being as fast
as a plane as convenient as such as a
train it means that it's sustainable and
efficient of course I think we should
stay efficient in also in our personal
lives so let me tell you a personal
story about efficiency in life first of
all I think one of the most important
quality a person can have in this life
is to stay curious because if you stay
curious you are able to diversify your
activities in life and you are you are
be able to be more creative when you are
more creative actually you see many
different activities and you can bring
together what is in your left with what
is in your right and actually create an
integral of a project which bring you
brings you to the innovation I just want
you to remember the story approximately
seven years ago
I was carrying he carrying languages in
a hotel you know I was doing it with
passion as everything I do in my life
and in one of the days it was a a
tourist on the Romanian Black Sea resort
which came and he said a very clever old
man he said you know then is it's your
perspective how is your job more than
building your arms to diversify your
people that you are going to me because
I had hot other different type of people
like different profiles different ages
social classes and you might take an
advantage of that by the way he was a
physics professor I quit the job because
I thought that is not for me I remember
about this wise old man that told me
about the physics - he told me like just
try to stay curious in your life and I
went home I closed the door I closed the
windows I covered the windows and I
opened a physics book I think it was my
my poor child my portal to the future
actually I entered a very good Technical
University in Bucharest where I was
studying nanotechnologies doesn't matter
actually I do - so there is no much link
between hyper-v nanotechnologies but the
idea of being curious in reading what's
new and trying to bring together
different subsystems and different views
or visions in my life brought me in a
situation that I was not as not be able
to survive if I was not understanding
something I was kind of freak control
and I was trying to get every knowledge
oh of course I was fast
I had speed but not really efficient in
one day I was reading reddit you know
what reddit is right it is like a social
media of science and Elon Musk
actually launched a nuke a new mode of
transportation called Hyperloop and he
decided to create a new competition one
of the readers commented his post who
wants to create a ready to loop team and
I was crazy enough to say okay also me I
really like this idea even if I honestly
didn't know what Hyperloop is so I said
okay let's create this team and we open
like a slack account or we're discussing
all these ideas where people from the
entire world we didn't know each other
we didn't know we didn't meet before it
was the first time when we are
discussing and but when we knew that all
of us we have two visions that are kind
of intersected to stay curious and to
bring this mode of transportation alive
you know many of my colleagues after the
lecture is saying okay do you wanna go
for a beard you either go to work in a
park or something I was like no I'm
going to my virtual friends to talk with
them about Hyperloop and they even
didn't understand what I was doing so
some time passed and there are up there
are around ten thousand teams registered
for this competition so everyone as a
small group could actually participate
for this mode of transportation we were
ready to look team and we qualified in
the first 100 teams in the final of the
competition that was held in college
station near Houston where actually it's
a small student village we met there for
the first time it was unbelievable
because like fortunately we had the same
teacher so we recognized each other
but more than that actually we were like
that guy that was doing
Rochelle and you're the guys in the
structure you you're doing the I don't
know oh yeah you are
yeah so it was a bit awkward at the
beginning but actually we said let's
have fun let's have joy
so we presented the project we're very
honored and glad that Elon Musk chose to
come to our table to see exactly what we
have and what we presented the first
phase of the competition it was just
about design calculations and nothing to
demonstrate not nothing to prove so it
was nice we didn't have any expectation
because we knew that there are stronger
teams at the competition and the
ceremony award arrived we're actually
the announcer said he had the fist place
the fourth place the third place the
second place and at that moment one of
my colleague said okay guys just go to
cheer for a beer and let's be happy that
we went here and it's been a nice
adventure we had nice time together in
us in Houston and at that point the
director of SpaceX took the mic and
announced the winner team so guess what
we won the best design award at the
island mass competition and we
emphasized with our capsule with
efficiency and also with scalability of
the system so we did the first scalable
Hyperloop prototype in the world we
actually design it at that moment you
have any money so we started to we start
the crowdsourcing campaign where all the
Silicon Valley companies join us and
many other private sponsors help us with
with money I moved to us we stayed in
the same Airbnb house together just
imagine like we're working 16 hours per
day but Friday night and Saturday it was
crazy
we're like living 15 people together
we're going to San Francisco having fun
and so on so forth
actually the time flew and won one year
after in January 2017 it was the
competition weekend so it was the
continuity of the design competition in
order to actually have a prototype that
works that you can test Elin must build
this vacuum tube in Los Angeles where we
managed to bring all the teams managed
to bring around 20 capsules and we
tested so up to 10,000 teams registered
there are just 20 capsules in Los
Angeles at that moment we had several
issues we had several failures we failed
in front of Villa Mars we failed many
times because our design was so
complicated our design included for
example an active levitation don't worry
if you didn't hear about the active
levitation it sounds like some science
fiction and yeah you are not from far
away from that so we of course again
said okay guys we had a nice adventure
let's chill for a beer
we actually scheduled a party in the
Santa Monica and all of the team like
left there were three or four people at
the ceremony so there are four prizes
again the same announcers took the mic
said so the safety award is going to a
team that is the construction of what is
going for a team and the speed of word
is going for that team again we said
okay guys let's go to the party to join
the others I was with the with Tom and
brand and again the director of SpaceX
took the mic and he said and for the
reddit loop team we give them the
innovation a world so we won the
Innovation Award from Elon Musk one year
later after we won the best design of a
word for the Hyperloop capsule it's been
amazing
those experiences changed me a lot and
I've learned I've learned a lot of
things because I managed to stay curious
and I work with people from different
parts of engineering so
it was really nice after that we said
and now what so is going to be the
second competition we wanted to
participate we knew what's what was
wrong in our design we knew what we have
to improve and we're almost sure that
for this time we are going to make it
even better we registered for the
competition but guess what
Elon Musk did not allow us to
participate anymore in the competition
it was so frustrating for me I was like
why afterwards I was in us not having a
very good vision up with this team
finishing between times my bachelor
studies in Romania so I said okay guys
you want to my team actually wanted to
make some drones to to be able to sell
them I said for me it's not challenging
enough I cannot stay with you here
so you are my brothers we stayed
together we did crazy things we won all
the awards in Hyperloop but I don't
trust anymore in the project and I left
the team I wanted to make I was in a
very bad period of my life again and I
wanted to make a PhD I actually
graduated the bachelor in Romania where
I was the valedictorian and I was I was
actually admitted for you good
University in us in order to continue my
studies in Hyperloop and also I was
admitted for a master program in
Switzerland and I said okay I'll go to
us of course it's PhD I'm going directly
for the PhD but actually I failed a
TOEFL exam not once not twice ten times
okay what should I do now the only
chance was to move to Switzerland to the
school I am now in EPFL
I came as a master student but you know
I arrived from LA from the sunny LA in
Geneva in September when it was raining
it's like oh my god
where did I arrive nobody's on the
street you know it's like wow I asked
myself it was if it was a right decision
I said okay maybe it's just this weekend
so it would be better but actually after
two weeks it was still raining I was
also very bored staying in a chair
listening a lecture because we had these
adventures together who we I mean we did
a lot of things and staying in a channel
listening a professor talking about I
don't know a transistor these kind of
things I was like really what should I
do
so my frustration didn't past at that
moment and I was still thinking about
the competition of Elon Musk I said okay
I'm going to create a new team in
Switzerland I'm going to win again I
created my own team in Switzerland
everything went well after we qualified
in the final I didn't finish my master
and the professor told me come to the
PhD directly so actually I dropped the
master I entered the PhD in Hyperloop
and I created this team we went again we
went in Los Angeles the same story Elon
Musk of course we won again the first
prize for safety and the third place for
speed actually that the speed prize is
the only one that I didn't manage to get
the first but there is time for that now
I am in front of you I'm 25 I have a
start-up here in Switzerland where we
are 25 plastic members and we develop
this mode of transportation between
Geneva and Zurich so just imagine a way
to travel between Geneva and Zurich in
17 minutes with an energy so not
intercourse the energy price cost 8
francs per passenger this means to stay
sustainable and efficient
when I look to the guy to the boy that I
was seven years ago I think I changed
and I've learned a lot but one thing
that I want to do not change in my life
is the app the capability to stay
curious so if we stay curious then we
can diversify our work we can be more
creative and we can be more innovative
being more innovative we can be more
efficient and we can grow efficiently
and sustainable as the child tree and
this is what I wish for you thank you
[Applause]