What comes to mind when you hear the name Elon Musk? SpaceX? Tesla Motors? PayPal? SolarCity? What about Hyperloop?
In August 2013, Musk revealed plans for a 760 mph ground transportation system called Hyperloop. The design included a route from Los Angeles to San Francisco with an expected travel time of 35 minutes. The project was to cost at least $6 billion.
In June 2015, in hopes of accelerating development of a working prototype, SpaceX announced it would be sponsoring an official Hyperloop pod competition. It was to team up with AECOM to build a one-mile test track near the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. The competition received over 700 team applications within a month. 120 teams were invited to a Design Weekend at Texas A&M University in January 2016. At the event, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took home the prize for Best Overall Design. However, a total of thirty teams will be allowed to move on and build a human-scale prototype for their design. These teams include students still in high school, students from the local UC Irvine, and even one non-student team organized on the website Reddit.
If you did not previously associate the name Elon Musk with Hyperloop, you will by the time the test track competition weekend rolls around near August 2016. – Sally Soltero, Product Development Engineer of CRU Global Innovations
CRU Global Innovations 