Technology Podcast Launch
Our editorial mission is to cover every aspect of how roads and bridges are built and maintained in North America.
That mission contains many subcategories, which is why we have issue themes like concrete, asphalt, safety and road and bridge renovation.
This is the technology issue, and to be honest, it feels redundant. We published technology stories in each of the previous issues this year.
Our title might be Roads & Bridges, but we’re low key a tech mag.
(Notice how I wrote “low key” like a cool Gen Z’er? I’m so hip.)
Look, I’m not making a bold proclamation. It’s 2024. Every trade magazine is a low key tech mag, especially now with the age of artificial intelligence (AI) upon us.
However, given our editorial mission, more has to be done to keep our audience informed about the ways technology has revolutionized the roads and bridges construction industry.
That’s why, in a couple months, Roads & Bridges will launch a podcast that covers the technology side of the industry.
The Infrastructure Technology Podcast, ITP for short, is a collaboration with Mass Transit magazine, one of our sister publications here at Endeavor Business Media.
The ITP will feature interviews with experts and industry thought leaders, as well as roundtable discussions.
The podcast will examine the leading software, changes to construction equipment, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, emerging data sets, connected and automated vehicle corridors and how technology impacts safety, the supply chain, congestion and asset management.
We recorded interviews for the podcast throughout the summer. Our goal is to launch the ITP at year’s end.
I will host the ITP, and my cohosts include Brandon Lewis, associate editor of Mass Transit, and Harlee Hewitt, the Roads & Bridges associate editor who came up with the idea for the podcast and pushed us to start the project. Ryan Curtiss, our digital editor, will produce.
We are looking for experts to help us examine the following topics on the show:
• Building Information Modeling (BIM).
• Digital twins.
• AI and machine learning.
• Automation and robotics (including drones and 3D printing).
• Smart materials.
• Smart construction sites (wearables and Internet of Things).
• Exoskeletons.
And that is just off the top of my head.
If there are any technology topics that you would like to learn more about, or if you have any experts you want to suggest we book for an interview, please reach out. I would love to hear from you.
You are allowed to reach out and suggest yourself as a podcast guest.
We have more surprises in store for 2025. But first: our Top 10 Awards issue. Then Christmas. I’d say time flies, but young, hip people like me don’t complain about how fast time moves. RB
About the Author
Gavin Jenkins, Senior Managing Editor
Senior Managing Editor
Gavin Jenkins is an award-winning journalist based in Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, Narrative.ly, Prevention, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beijing Review.
In 2020, two stories he wrote for Pitt Med Magazine earned three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. “Surviving Survival” won Excellence in Corporate, Marketing and Promotional Communications – Written, Medical/Health, while “Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh’s Darkest Day, and the Mass Casualty Response” won Excellence in Written Journalism, Magazines – Medical/Health, as well as the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award: Magazines, a Best in Show award.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2003, he covered sports for the Bedford Gazette, in Bedford, Pa., and the Martinsville Bulletin, in Martinsville, Va. In 2006, he returned to Pittsburgh to write for Trib Total Media. Based out of the Kittanning Leader Times, he worked for the Trib for two years, and then he moved to Shenzhen, China, to teach English and freelance. After two years in China, he earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
When he's not at work, he's usually playing with his border-collie mix, Bob.