Earlier this year, SpaceX held it’s first round of the Hyperloop competition. It was then students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presented their design concepts of a functional Hyperloop prototype, and came out as reigning champs. In an interview with BBC, the MIT Hyperloop team has revealed their design.
The team, which consists of 30 MIT students, produced a scaled down version of the Hyperloop pod. The pod features electrodynamic levitation because it is “massively simpler and more scalable,” the students said in a statement on MIT’s website in February. Speaking to BBC, the team said that the brakes still needed more testing. One major issue the team, which is composed of students from aeronautics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and business management, is facing is making the pod turn. This obstacle would be a major hurdle to overcome for the forthcoming transportation system. Additionally, the pod is not currently big enough to carry a human being, but the team said once the full testing is complete it would be relatively straightforward to scale up to full size.
In the second phase of the SpaceX competition scheduled for summer 2016, the MIT students will go up against more than 20 other university and nonprofit teams.
During the initial phase of the contest, which took place in January, more than 115 student engineering teams, who represented 27 U.S. states and 20 countries at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Each team presented their plans for the overall pod design and were judged on a variety of criteria including innovation and uniqueness of design; full Hyperloop system applicability and economics; level of design detail; strength of supporting analysis and tests; feasibility for test tract competition; and quality of documentation and presentation.
In addition to MIT, the following four teams who were selected for the best design and build category are:
- Pod Innovation Award
Delft Hyperloop, Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) - Pod Technical Excellence Award
Badgerloop, University of Wisconsin-Madison - Pod Technical Excellence Award
Hyperloop at Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech - Pod Technical Excellence Award
HyperXite, University of California Irvine
Watch the video below.
