A group of civil engineering students at Fresno State learned about the future of transportation in the Central Valley and the state at a day-long conference.
International experts on high speed rail conducted workshops and put on panels to teach the next generation of civil engineers.
Bianca Rodriguez is part of the group of students in the civil engineer program.
"For me, growing up in the Central Valley--just the fact that the high speed rail is going to start here in the Valley is just--it's just awesome," Rodriguez says.
California will be the first in the nation to have a high speed rail system.
The project will bring a boost to the Central Valley with 20,000 new jobs every year in the early stages, according to the California High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA).
For students like Rodriguez, who are soon to graduate, this is good news.
"It's such a big project. I think it's important that the students here at Fresno State are able to interact with these professionals," Rodriguez says.
Estimated at $68 billion by the California HSRA, the project is perhaps the largest engineering project in state history, according to civil engineers.
"This isn't just another 20-story building going up. This is something that's just going to transform California, not just the Central Valley," says Charlie Guess, who on Monday represented the firm Arcadis, a global engineering firm.
Industry leaders spent the day teaching students about international models of high speed rail. It's a kind of curriculum that otherwise isn't available to local engineering students.
"As interest builds up, we are hoping to build more courses in high speed rail," says Ram Nunna, dean of the Lyles College of Engineering.
The CEO of the California HSRA, Jeff Morales, was one of the panelists at Monday's conference.
Work on the project will break ground in the Central Valley sometime this year. The project is expected to be completed in 2029.