A team from MIT created the winning design and will now go on to create the pod and test it on a one-mile track being constructed near SpaceX’s Hawthorne, Calif. headquarters. Other teams also will have the opportunity to test their pods at the track facility. Their pod will utilize a passive magnetic levitation system, an innovative lift suspension system, and a mechanically fail-safe braking system, so that if the actuators or computers fail, the system will brake automatically. Musk first talked about the Hyperloop idea in a white paper published on the SpaceX website in August 2013. The idea was inspired by Musk’s frustrations from being stuck in LA traffic. He wanted to create something that could theoretically take passengers from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes, which would involve traveling at speeds of about 700 mph. There were lots of winners that came out of the 2 day competition. Here is the complete list of winners provided by Texas A&M University. Best Overall Design Award: MIT Hyperloop Team, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPod Innovation Award: Delft Hyperloop, Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)Pod Technical Excellence Award: Badgerloop, University of Wisconsin-MadisonPod Technical Excellence Award: Hyperloop at Virginia Tech, Virginia TechPod Technical Excellence Award: HyperXite, University of California Irvine Over teams advancing include:
rLoop (non-student team)uWaterloo Hyperloop, University of WaterlooUWashington Hyperloop, University of WashingtonUniversity of Toronto, University of TorontoRUMD Loop, University of Maryland and Rutgers UniversityGatorLoop, University of FloridaTeam HyperLynx, University of Colorado-DenverHyperloop UC, University of CincinnatiUSCB Hyperloop, University of California-Santa BarbarabLoop, University of California-BerkeleyTAMU Aerospace Hyperloop, Texas A&MWARR Hyperloop, Technical University of Munich (Germany)Purdue Hyperloop Design Team, Purdue UniversityCodex, Oral Roberts UniversityLehigh Hyperloop, Lehigh UniversityKeio Alpha, Keio UniversityDrexel Hyperloop, Drexel UniversityCarnegie Mellon Hyperloop, Carnegie-Mellon University
Featured Image courtesy of SpaceX via AP
