This week at the UT Energy Symposium, Todd Davidson will give a talk titled "To Uber or Not to Uber: Economic and Energetic Tradeoffs."
Dr. Todd Davidson is a Research Associate in the Energy Institute and the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin. Todd’s research is focused on a variety of topics at the confluence of energy technology and economics. His work has analyzed the technoeconomic opportunities of integrating renewable energy resources with industrial processes, emerging solutions for personal transportation, improving wastewater treatment and flare gas management at oil and gas production facilities, and novel energy storage solutions for next generation automobiles & grid-applications.
Prior to joining UT Austin, Todd was the CEO of nCarbon, Inc., a company focused on the commercialization of advanced supercapacitor electrodes. Todd started his career working for Raytheon where he helped to design and deploy four different missile defense product lines.
In addition to his research, Todd has taught fluid mechanics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and guest lectures on entrepreneurship at UT Austin. He received a BS in Engineering Science from Trinity University and an MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from UT Austin.
Abstract: The world of personal transportation is seeing rapid innovation as ride sharing networks become ubiquitous and the promise of autonomous cars moves from the world of science fiction to reality. These changes will have profound implications for consumer behavior and the energy industry. While working at UT Austin, Dr. Todd Davidson has helped to develop methods for estimating the market penetration of mobility services, such as Uber and Lyft. From these estimates, we can begin to explore the potential cascading impacts of shared, autonomous, electric vehicles.
The UT Energy Symposium meets every Thursday during the long semesters. Come early to attend a networking session before the talk: refreshments will be served at 4:45 p.m. in the POB Connector Lobby outside the auditorium.