Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
The Beta District: How Central Ohio Became America's Smart Mobility Testbed
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A connected region doesn’t happen by accident. It takes cities willing to coordinate, infrastructure that can support real-world testing, and leaders who can turn big mobility ideas into solutions that make everyday life safer. Lindsay and Bruce sit down with Doug McCullough, Executive Director of The Beta District, to discuss how Dublin, Marysville and Union County are building a smart mobility innovation district that serves as a national testing ground for transportation and logistics technologies.
We talk through what “mobility” really means when you look beyond cars: the movement of people, goods and services across communities, industry, agriculture and logistics. Doug explains The Beta District’s living labs, including the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor and its partnership with the Transportation Research Center. Plus, he shares how multi-level coordination with DriveOhio creates an edge that many regions simply can’t replicate.
You’ll also learn about practical examples like truck platooning, why fiber and digital connectivity matter for both residents and businesses, and how the district keeps its focus on a clear North Star: reducing fatal crashes and improving quality of life. Lindsay, Bruce and Doug then look ahead to the next five to ten years, from microelectronics and logistics modernization to advanced air mobility. You'll even learn a new word as Doug describes himself as a "techno-optimist" when it comes to AI.
If you’re curious about smart cities, connected vehicles, transportation technology and how regional collaboration actually works, hit play, subscribe and share the show with a friend.
Welcome To The Beta District
SPEAKER_05Hello and welcome to Link Ahead. Today we are talking innovation, connectivity, and the future of mobility right here in the Beta District. And joining us once again is Executive Director Doug McCullough. Hi, and welcome back, Doug.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having me back.
SPEAKER_05All right, the Beta District is about shaping the future of smart mobility. Broadly, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_01Well, we have to become a center of gravity. We have to have the infrastructure and the relationships and the technology and the funding, and we have to mix them all in one place and just sort of create a sense of gravity. So uh that's how we do that. We have to pick what is important to us, and for us, we've picked smart mobility, and we've planted a flag, and that's how we do it. Uh
Why The Beta District Exists
SPEAKER_01to level set here, just give us a little bit of history and mission of the beta district. Aaron Powell So you know, Dublin has always been a place where innovation has been happening. It's a place where there's infrastructure and things like that. And Marysville is doing that as well. And uh around the time when we started, Marysville, Union County, Dublin all were interested in some of the same things, whether it be mobility systems or automotive manufacturing or talent and workforce or smart cities. And because we're so close together, there's a real risk that we would have been stepping all over each other. Sure. The right thing to do was to form a council of governments so that economic development and smart city and technology deployment and innovation attraction uh could happen under one banner. It was a very mature and advanced thing to do. And that's the history of how the beta district came to be. Uh the beta district is the branded name of the 33 Northwest 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments, which doesn't roll off.
SPEAKER_05Not quite. But the beta.
SPEAKER_01Not like Beta District does. Exactly. So that's the history.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and Bruce is really involved in that branding uh exercise. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that was great to like come up with a concept and not make it an acronym for something. Like beta doesn't stand for something. It's like this is an idea, this is a concept, and yeah, it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we really went out there on a limb there also in that nobody else is called the beta this or the beta that. And it's very technical. So if you have a technology environment, uh alpha test is what you if you're an inventor, you alpha test it on your desktop. But if you want real customers, you go to a beta test environment. And we wanted to capture that spirit.
SPEAKER_05All right. And we'll talk about some of the other innovation districts around the country in a little bit, but back to that mission, has it evolved at all um over the years?
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell It has. Uh you could say that we were initially an infrastructure development uh kind of uh play, and the infrastructure is in place and it's going quite well. Now we're more of a testing and innovation zone. Uh so it has evolved, and I think we anticipated that, but you can never really anticipate what's going to happen in the universe with new technologies and changes in administrations and and all sorts of things hitting us that that have made us have to rethink uh what our original mission is. We're still on that original mission, but we have to we have to evolve. Everybody does.
Mobility Means More Than Cars
SPEAKER_02So the beta district um is idea for so many different industries, kind of like what you mentioned, ranging from tech and transportation to agriculture, automotive. Can you talk about the impact that this wide range of sections has?
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell So it's interesting in that all of them relate to mobility. And it took me a while to get used to that word, movement, just the movement of things and people and products and all sorts of things. When you're really thinking about just mobility in general, it has applications in agriculture, it has applications in space, it has applications for pedestrians and uh uh applications for logistics and transit and other forms of transportation, including microtransit. And so that's really how we think about it, not so much what is the specific uh uh vehicle, whether it's a truck or a bus or a train or or a police car or your feet, but rather how do we get these things to interact together so that there is safety, no more loss of life, uh, and a high quality of life, and it allows people to move around.
SPEAKER_02You didn't mention hovercraft though. Where are we on the hovercraft technology?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, we're not as close to water as we could be, but I wouldn't count it out.
SPEAKER_05You're right. I think you just mentioned everything from agriculture to space.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_05So this is a really cool initiative. And you know, part of what we're trying to do with this is attract a world-class workforce, world-class businesses to come and test here, and then just create this ecosystem for companies. Talk a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, you're actually doing both of those things at one time because when you create an ecosystem, workforce wants to be close to it. Uh, and when you have a great workforce, an ecosystem, you know, different companies they want to be close by. It's sticky to have great talented people in your community. So there's a bit of a cart and a horse thing. Which do you do first? Do you get great talent and then the companies will show up, or do you get great companies and the talent will show up? Either way, um, we have to do what's necessary so that both of them are experiencing what they need in order to uh be satisfied with an area. And when you do that for a physical location, you need things like infrastructure, but you also need relationships and proximity to great universities and other companies that will act as partners with you, not just consumers of the area, but contributors to the larger economic value system.
Living Labs And The Connected Corridor
SPEAKER_02So the beta district has living labs that really set us apart from you know regionally and nationally. So let's dive into some of those right now.
SPEAKER_05All right, you talk about infrastructure, and we have the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, uh, the world's most connected corridor. Uh explain for our listeners what exactly that is and what it means.
SPEAKER_01So when you think about a corridor, think about a a place like a big river. It's it's it's just uh how things kind of move through. And our corridor includes all of the city of Dublin, all of the city of Marysville, and all of Union County, not just Highway 33. So side streets, schools, K-12 systems, hospitals, uh restaurants, grocery stores, park uh trail systems, all of them are part of a corridor uh because it's definable. And so that's how I think of the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor.
SPEAKER_02How about the uh TRC, the Transportation Research Center?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Think of TRC as an enclosed space. Uh ultimately they can do a lot of interesting things there, and some of it is secret, so I'm not supposed to talk about it. I don't even know about halfway. We won't tell anyone to spill the secrets. Ultimately, there's a locked door on the front. You can't go in there and watch and see some of the stuff they're doing. They have a closed track and very interesting uh experimentation going on out there. We partner with them so that some of the innovations they're working on in secret before everyone's able to see it can come out on the roadways, can go into the communities. And and so that's what makes TRC a living lab. But our partnership with them is the critical aspect of what we're doing now.
SPEAKER_05And people talk about that being a four seasons environment. You know, you're here, you have raid, you have snow, you have a little bit of everything, sometimes in all in one day. That's right. And that makes it really valuable to companies that are testing, you know, in the automotive industry. Um some other four season living labs are connected Dublin and connected Marysville. You talked a little bit about this at the beginning in terms of us we're kind of doing our own thing, but in the same space. And so this is about us playing together. Talk about those two ecosystems.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Years ago, when Smart City was an early buzzword, everyone had a smart this and smart that. And it's still okay to do that. But uh so these are smart city initiatives that uh include more than just the buzzword of SMART. So you're gonna have fiber connectivity or network connectivity. You also have community connectivity and services and things like that, people to their governments. And uh you had these, you still have these initiatives happening independently in these communities, which is very, very cool. But together, when you coordinate them, you wind up with a region-wide uh kind of stance and ability to face the world. And so Connected Dublin and Connected Marysville both have community-specific projects that are are things that are communicated with their residents in particular. Um I I won't name off some of the projects that are there, but um both of them are are very interesting. And the opportunity that we have is for if you were to visit this region, you could go to either of these communities and just really be blown away by the amount of connectedness that we're experiencing.
DriveOhio And Truck Platooning Explained
SPEAKER_01Uh how about Drive Ohio? Drive Ohio is our opportunity to coordinate with our state, and that's a huge deal. Um, one of the advantages that we have in the beta district is multi-level governmental coordination, which is a rare thing. You can do a lot of things in a lot of other cities, but not everyone has a relationship with their state, their Department of Transportation, um, and and that's what Drive Ohio is with us. They have the ability to go away from our little mark micro region, but they bring their learnings back and they carry us with them. So some of what they're doing with truck platooning on Interstate 70, we're not on Interstate 70, but in Columbus, if you know Columbus, we're all close by there. Um that's an opportunity for us to gain the learnings and the relationships and uh the economic development opportunities uh here in the beta district, even though we don't have I-70. And that's thanks to the partnership with Drive Ohio.
SPEAKER_05Tell us a little bit more about that truck platooning, because I think people hear that and don't really understand what it means. So for the novices out there, what what exactly are they doing?
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell One of the challenges with distribution and logistics is finding people to drive the trucks that we all use to get our goods and services to ourselves. Um what truck platooning allows for is for one truck to back up uh extremely close to another truck. So the truck in the front can see and does the steering. And if there's a fast enough network connection with the truck behind, then it essentially it moves its wheels and and turns according to uh what's happening with that truck. Right now, they don't have that that proximity to each other, but ultimately you want to have fewer drivers and the ability for trucks to make long distances with fewer controllers. And that's all part of the experience experiment there. It's not there yet, but the fact that we've opened up our roads to this means that you know we're we're gaining ground on pardon the pun. We're gaining ground, we're gaining road. We're advancing on what this is gonna mean in the future, which is potentially fewer drivers. And I don't say that to scare people who are working as drivers. Right. Um, but you know, the the demand in the industry is quite high, and we don't have enough people to fulfill those roles. That's not why it's done. There's also some safety advantages and all sorts of things advancing this technology.
SPEAKER_05Well, I love diving into these use cases because I think you know that's what really brings the beta district to life. And here are some real things that we're doing in the real world that we're testing. And uh, you know, some of those include the fiber of the home project in Dublin, which you mentioned, um, high-speed fiber loop, Drive Ohio's rural ADS project. Just talk a little bit about those things that are happening right now in our
Fiber Projects With Safety As North Star
SPEAKER_05region.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Yeah, you know, when you make a big investment in infrastructure that's good for industry, often residents and small businesses and nonprofits and others benefit from them. And that's an important thing for us to keep an eye on. It's not always that one company that is conducting the experiment that is going to receive all of the benefit. One really important thing is that our North Star is safety. Uh fatal crashes is a really big deal. And if you can remove or dramatically reduce fatal crashes as caused by vehicles or drivers, then all of our quality of life goes up. And ultimately, the Drive Ohio's uh ADS project and uh our fiber and um our uh connected vehicle environment on the fiber going up and down 33 leads towards outcomes that allow for our automakers, our policymakers, our insurance companies all to be guiding their activities towards reducing fatal crashes. Um sometimes you have other types of crashes, but if we can reduce these fatal crashes, then it just imagine the impact that has on families' lives and community life.
What Other Innovation Hubs Learn
SPEAKER_02So we have several years under a belt with the beta district. So what have what are some takeaways from us and what have other you know regions learned from us?
SPEAKER_01So I often define us as a innovation hub because other places, whether it's silicon this or that hub, they define themselves as hubs. And and we fit within that. We benchmark against many of those different places. One of the things that's happened over the last several years is that they're popping up everywhere. It doesn't take that much to establish one of these hubs, and some of them are very much catching up to what we've been able to do. Uh but the other thing that's happening is we have a niche, and smart mobility and automotive is a niche. Not everyone can do that. Sure. In the Midwest, we can do that because we have this automotive manufacturing legacy, but I don't know that you can do that in Arizona or well, California has some pretty good manufacturing. But so so that's something that I certainly have learned. You can't just go out there and just be cool tech.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You need to have you need to leverage the legacy and the heritage of your region because that's where your talent is, that's where the investment already is, and hopefully that's gonna keep us ahead of some of the other things around the country. But even if it doesn't, um we are coordinating this together, and ultimately we're gonna have a smarter country all together. It's not just the beta district and Dublin and Marysville and Union County, and you guys know this because we work in public sector. Right. If the rest of the world benefits, that's no harm to us.
SPEAKER_05Wow, I think that's the stump speech right there for the beta district. That was rather inspiring. So as we continue to le lean forward, how do we continue to differentiate ourselves from the silicon this and the research that?
Staying Distinct With Drones And Supply Chains
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell One of the things that we can do is work with our manufacturing companies to help them pivot into industries that we are seeing emerging in in growth in our area. And one of the things I'll say is advanced air mobility, which is a fancy way of saying drones. So unmanned area systems. I like it. Um we have Andorro has come to Ohio and they are manufacturing drones. There's a supply chain opportunity with that. Yeah, everyone can't do it because they're in Ohio. They came here. What can we do in order to prepare our manufacturers, which includes large companies as well as smaller companies, uh, to um to fulfill the supply chain of that particular manufacturer? And that's going to keep happening. We're close by to Joby, Intel is around the corner. We have all of these technology manufacturers that our automotive manufacturers can pivot to. That's a a way that we can stay ahead of the game, I think.
SPEAKER_02So let's look ahead a bit.
Future Of Mobility Conference Preview
SPEAKER_02So the future of mobility conference is coming in August. The theme is from concept to connected. So tell us about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've had other themes in the past. First of all, the conference itself, this is uh another year that we're doing Ohio's Future of Mobility Conference. There's a lot of hubris in there. Um but we've planted a flag, and you know, we're really talking about the future of mobility. Um, last year we had over 150 guests, uh, over 50 speakers. We had multiple countries represented. It was a longer event. This is gonna be just a single day. Uh, but we generated a lot of energy, new relationships, a lot of information that a lot of us thought we all knew of what was happening in smart mobility, and we learned stuff because folks came in from Joby and from uh Beta Technologies and all of these other companies, the logistics companies. So we're gonna do that again. Uh we're we're building a statewide audience. It's it's Ohio's Future of Mobility Conference. And uh I'm really excited about people coming. And by the way, you can get to register for that at our website, uh betadistrict.com. And uh so go sign up immediately. We'll do.
SPEAKER_05Immediately. Yeah, I know last year's was really popular, and like you said, we um drew people from all over the globe. So, you know, we're really building a brand with the beta district.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I do want to sign on to that. Um the brand is something that typically local governments don't concern themselves with, but we're trying to attract people who are not going to be looking at us as cities every day. So we have to have something, uh some sparklers in the sky that that attracts people to say, what are they talking about? And and a conference is a great way to attract people to hear. Uh we can meet people and have conversations with them.
SPEAKER_05Right. So as we look toward the future, you know, what's coming down the pipeline for the next five to ten years? Maybe walk us through the strategic plan really high level.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
The Next Decade Strategic Priorities
SPEAKER_01Uh we are coalescing around some large initiatives that we can bring industry partners to the table with. Three of them that I'll mention is number one, uh the microelectronics manufacturing studio, which is again our bid to help local manufacturers get into industrial robots and low earth orbit satellites and and drones. Um the second one would be uh digital infrastructure, which is something like a digital twin scenario. I won't go into details with it, but um our ability to put certain digital technologies together in a certain uh combination allows us to draw in uh people who are working purely in the digital space. And then uh finally around uh logistics. So that's not particularly doesn't sound like tech, but our logistics future is gonna depend on new technologies and coordination and policies and processes that I think we're gonna build here in the beta district. So um there are a lot of industries that don't sound like tech that are gonna be tech dependent, and we want to be the place where the marriage between traditional manufacturing and industry gets married to digital future and AI and and automation.
SPEAKER_02All
A Techno-Optimist Take On AI
SPEAKER_02right, Doug, you just said it. We've had this whole conversation and we just we just heard the two words, two letters, AI. Yeah. Should we build a bunker because it's gonna take over the world? You know, I I'm not what the question says. It's not what the question says, but we're joking about AI because nobody knows exactly what it is. Some people say it's gonna be uh the end of all things, and others say it's gonna be a partner. What is your take on AI and how is the beta district leveraging some of that? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_01So I'm a technologist and I'm also a techno optimist. So techno-optimist, right? It may not even be a word. It is now it is now. You better trademark it. But uh I have watched a lot of different technologies come around, all of which we're gonna smother the world, all of which we're gonna change everything. If you go back to the Industrial Revolution, it really is a model for how we can panic. We have a tendency of panicking. But new technology has been introduced into society for thousands of years. Sure. And I'm not poo-pooing the concern and the fear. This is different. It's it's extremely fast, and the next change will be fast as well. My point is that I have trust in humans. I believe that we are creative, that we are collaborative, and we will use the tools. We are the creators of these tools. Um we will find ways of using them. Our world will be different. It will be very scary, and it may be painful to transition to it, but I don't think it's the end of us in humanity. I just think that we need to think differently about what our world looks like and what the opportunities are for us to do with our time.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02You apparently haven't seen the movie terminated.
SPEAKER_05I was going to say, you know, they've been talking about robots are going to take over the world ever since I've been born, and it hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_01No, it hasn't. I'm a robot. I didn't mention it. It's AI generated for those of you that I don't think AI is that good yet.
SPEAKER_02No, it's not. It is not. You're much better.
SPEAKER_05Um, so let's talk a little bit about your personal story. Um, hard
Doug’s Path From CIO To Director
SPEAKER_05to believe it's been three years since your last visit on Link Ahead. Um at that time you served as Dublin CIO, and then you were named the Beta District's first executive director. What drew you to that role?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, there is an evolution. You know, uh as a CIO, you have a view of running the technology in an organization and achieving certain goals. And once you've done that, uh, you know, it's it's challenging to be able to find new challenges for yourself. The beta district is a different stack of technology. It's data. And connectivity and software and hardware, but it it looks different. It acts different. And so moving in this direction represented a challenge to me to say, how can I interact with new kinds of organizations and industries and continue evolving for myself? So I uh that's what drew me to the beta district. I was curious about it. Plus, I also kind of got thrown in. You're a technologist. What does this stuff mean? And uh and I've stayed and I'm still enjoying that. And I will transition in the future quicker rather than getting stuck in any one area. And AI and this new world we're in allows us to embrace new things faster. Right.
SPEAKER_02Well, we're glad you're in the baby industry. Your resume of municipal public service, state government, private sector, plus creating tech opportunities for underserved underserved communities, like you seem to relish in the role of collaborative leader.
SPEAKER_01I suppose you could say that my entry into technology was as a project manager. It was as in having to walk around the halls and talk to different people who are doing different things and try and figure out how they were adding value and reporting that back to others. So I've always had a view of the enterprise that some of my fellow technologists have not, if they are a software coder or if they are a network manager. So yeah, um ultimate and that probably where my confidence in people comes from. Because ultimately the success that I've had in a technical environment has come from getting people to work together uh to achieve adding value to an organization or in the case of local government to a society or to a neighborhood or to residents.
SPEAKER_05All
Rapid Fire Tech Habits And Life
SPEAKER_05right, Doug, um, you've been here before, so you know you know how we roll around here. Uh as we wrap up this episode, we're gonna throw a few rapid fire questions your way.
SPEAKER_01I'll do my best. All right.
SPEAKER_05So as a tech leader and a techno optimist, we've now learned. Are you a tech gizmo guy? Do you have to have the latest smartphone or smart fridge in your house? Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_01I may disappoint you, but I'm a Google guy. So I've got a Pixel phone, a Pixel book. I'm very excited about the new Google Books. Um I'm less of a gadget guy that said, you know, regular stuff, tablet, phone, watch, but but no bigger. And I don't have glasses, and I don't think I'm getting them.
SPEAKER_05So we have some over there. I think we do. We got a pair.
SPEAKER_02All right. Do you prefer phone conversation, texts, or emails?
SPEAKER_01I actually prefer emails in my system. You can create a task out of an email, they're time stamped. You can do them to a thousand people or one person. You can time them to go out very quickly and easily, and I do that a lot. So if you work all weekend and you time your email to go out on Monday morning, you make happy people. But texts are not like that. You know, they're not. If you if you're not going to get to a text for a day or two, it just doesn't work. You know, so I'd so much prefer email.
SPEAKER_05All right. I'll stop texting you. How about is there a piece of old school technology you still love to use?
SPEAKER_01Well, I do have a turntable.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_05Thought you might. You're a music guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um but not so much. Uh you know, I I I'm just not that kind of a person. I try to be a minimalist and get stuff out of your house, you know. Because you got I got a bag of wires like everybody.
SPEAKER_02That's right.
SPEAKER_01And I don't know.
SPEAKER_02So you're surrounded by tech 24-7. How do you shut off from tech 24-7?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think you need to have a plan. And uh I kind of do that. I like to read. I like that speaking of old school technology, you know, I love a paper book, although I do have a Kindle. So I do love my Kindle. But uh, you know, I I do think you need rules. And and it especially right now where our feed is always in front of us, uh, you you need to have a way away from that feed. It's dangerous. It's not good for you. You know, it is not good.
SPEAKER_05All right, let's let's go right there. Could you go off the grid for a whole week? And what would you do?
SPEAKER_01I can't go off the grid for 20 minutes. Oh man.
SPEAKER_05We have him held captive right here. He's itchy. He wants to check his phone.
SPEAKER_01My phone is buzzing or something like that. But no, I I'm not that one. I can't do it. I mean, I suppose I could if if I had to, but it I would be miserable. I would be, but I do have rules about, you know, yes, I need to be connected, but not to social media. It is evil.
SPEAKER_04It can be used for good, right?
SPEAKER_01We try to use it for good, Doug. Well, without a doubt. And and that's the thing. There are some good things, but it's it's so tempting. Sure. And things pop across your timeline. It's like, why did you show this to me? I'm not angry about this.
SPEAKER_02Did you not see the way the eggs were prepared? It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01It's art. It is art. Speaking of art, what's a hidden talent? A hidden talent. Uh God, I'm all out of talent, I guess. I feel like I can read people I I I can read situations well. And that may help me in in helping tech organizations move forward. I can I can read stuff. I used to be able to.
SPEAKER_05All right. Well, how about what's a talent you wish you had?
SPEAKER_01Uh I wish I could influence the people I'm reading. I I wish I could I could get people to do that's he talking about us. I think so. He's mentally put a message into my head.
SPEAKER_04Whatever you want, Doug.
SPEAKER_01I I need people to do things in a certain way, and when they don't, it creates a problem for me. Yeah. Most of my headaches come from people not doing what I need them to do. So all right.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna switch gears on that.
SPEAKER_01Uh best place in Dublin to wind down. Oh, that's a good one. So I'm a I'm a fan of sweet waters. I don't I don't know that I would call it wind down. You're winding up, but yeah, but it's uh it's a of coffee, it's a really good place. I also like the market. Market is not North Market, I'm talking about. Yep, it's not quiet. No, right. But you can be at peace by yourself. You can if you've ever walked around the table, just walk from one end of the market to the next. It it is a uh an unplugging from me.
SPEAKER_02All right, Doug, we're at the end of this conversation. Thank you so much for coming back to Lick Ahead, and we look forward to seeing what's next in the data. It's very awesome. It's been great to see you guys.
SPEAKER_05And to our listeners, thank you for taking the time to connect with your city. Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many personalities and experiences that make Dublin a thriving place to live, work, and grow.