At least 124 student engineering teams representing 27 U.S. states and 20 countries will be traveling to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, to take part in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend. During the Jan. 29-30 competition, more than 1,000 students representing over 100 universities and three high schools will present their Hyperloop Pod design concepts to panels of judges.
For a full list, click here.
The Design Weekend teams were selected by SpaceX from hundreds of entries to present their concepts to a panel of SpaceX, Tesla and university judges for a chance to build and test their design prototype at the world’s first Hyperloop Test Track being built by SpaceX adjacent to its headquarters in Hawthorne, California. This final phase of the Hyperloop competition will be held in the summer of 2016.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx will discuss the future of transportation during a private event for the student teams held during Design Weekend.
In conjunction with the Hyperloop competition, Texas A&M will also host a Future Transport and Tech Fair where the Hall of Champions at Kyle Field will be transformed into a hub of innovation for futuristic transportation. In addition to exhibit booths showcasing the design concepts of the Hyperloop Pod teams, there will also be several hands-on experiential displays, new technology and other exhibits.
Judging begins at 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29 at the Memorial Student Center and continues Saturday at 8 a.m. The public is invited to view the Hyperloop design submissions during the Future Transportation and Tech Fair from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Hall of Champions.
The results of the competition, including which teams will be selected to compete on the actual test track, will be announced at 4:15 p.m. Saturday.
The Hyperloop, a high-speed ground transport concept was first proposed by SpaceX and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk in 2013. With the Hyperloop, passengers could travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under 30 minutes, radically transforming the speed and safety of passenger mass transit. Design Weekend which SpaceX announced in June, is a preliminary competition for students designed to encourage innovation and challenge them to design and build the best Hyperloop transport Pod.
For more information about the event, please visit http://engineering.tamu.edu/hyperloop and www.spacex.com/hyperloop.
