Students and faculty from Texas A&M University will be well represented at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Design Weekend at Texas A&M. All seven hyperloop design teams have been invited to the weekend competition hosted by Texas A&M Jan. 29-30.
The SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Design Weekend will provide student teams an opportunity to present their designs and compete for technical awards and corporate sponsorships toward the development of prototypes. Selected teams will be able to test their prototypes summer 2016 at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The teams and faculty advisors from Texas A&M include: JET STREAM (Dr. Bill Schneider and Dr. Andrea Strzelec); TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop (Dr. Mobile Benedict and Dr. Adonios Karpetis); HyperWhoop (Dr. Charles Culp); Texas A&M RB3 Designs (Dr. Tracy Fullerton); Texas A&M Society of Flight Test Engineers (Dr. Diego Donzis); Texas A&M University Hyperloop Alliance (Dr. Mark Holtzapple and Matt Whiteacre); and Aggieloop (David Kanipe).
“In my Hyperloop capstone, students are forced to integrate many different disciplines into a system,” said Schneider, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “The project is open ended; there are no right or wrong answers, but there are worst, better and best design solutions. This closely simulates the real world, the world they will be thrown into upon graduation."
The formation of each team was slightly different. Some teams, like JET STREAM, were formed as part of a class and consist of engineering seniors from several majors enrolled in a capstone design class. TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop is comprised of AERO 417 and 489 students. Other teams, like HyperWhoop and Hyperloop Alliance, were formed solely from having an interested group of students and faculty advisors.
“The Hyperloop project provides an amazing opportunity for students to apply themselves to a technologically demanding problem,” said Kanipe, aerospace engineering professor of practice. “They could develop solutions that will not only be incorporated into the ultimate SpaceX Hyperloop, but change the future of high speed travel forever.”
The competition has also attracted teams from around the globe. Student teams from 10 countries have already requested invitation letters to travel to Texas A&M and attend the design weekend.
While the final number of invitations to the design weekend has not been announced, approximately 125 student preliminary designs were submitted.
In June, SpaceX initiated the pod design competition to find the perfect pod design. A hyperloop is a pioneering mode of transportation consisting of passenger pods sent through a tube at more than 500 mph.
More information on the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Design Weekend at Texas A&M can be found on the competition website.