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We did so many great interviews about how Tulsa is shifting its economy to become a more tech-centric innovation hub, we couldn’t get them all into our 5-part Destination Tulsa: Tech Hub in the Heartland series in February and March. So, we decided to share some of them in a special bonus episode today.
What does it take to reinvent a community, revive a local economy, and reinvigorate a workforce? Tulsa, Oklahoma, is embracing in-demand tech industries to do just that. At the heart of the effort is a strong foundation of education, entrepreneurship, health care tech, energy tech, and cybersecurity.
Tulsa Innovation Labs (TIL) has been driving this transition. In this episode, we speak with an entrepreneur in that one of the five areas that TIL targeted for the city’s technology renaissance. Staci Taruscio is the founder and CEO of Rebellion Energy, an environmentally-conscious oil and gas company, which might sound like a contradiction. But Taruscio explains how the company minimizes the environmental effects of oil and gas extraction. It’s all about doing business in a different way.
We also have more on Oklahoma State University’s cutting edge work in advanced aerial mobility, or drones. Benjamin Loh is an assistant research professor at OSU. Loh walks us through one of the projects he’s working on, thanks to a $90,000 proof-of-concept grant from the state of Oklahoma for an urban air mobility solution, or what some people call a “flying taxi.” He’s working with the Choctaw Nation on this drone, which would be much larger than drones in use today. And it could be a vital tool in search-and-rescue missions all around the country.
Listen to the original five-part Work in Progress podcast series – Destination Tulsa: Tech Hub in the Heartland
Episode 226: Destination Tulsa – Flying taxis and more
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch and Melissa Panzer
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0
Music for Destination Tulsa series: From Bensound.com
Download the transcript for this podcast here.
You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts
