Hyperloop Technologies Inc., a Los Angeles-based startup company working to grow Hyperloop systems, said that it would join hands with Elon Musk's SpaceX as sponsor for the Hyperloop design competition. The company also announced that it would offer $150,000 in prizes for students.
This move highlights the company's effort to categorise the next generation students with engineering talents and who are engrossed in making Hyperloop a veracity, Josh Giegel, VP for design and analysis of Hyperloop said in hyperlooptech blog.
More than 1000 engineering students and 100 teams from all parts of the world will be elected to participate in the contest. The competition consists of two parts in which the students design and construct a pod prototype for Hyperloop system.
The first portion of the competition, the Design Weekend, will be presented at Texas A&M University on the final weekend of January. During the Design Weekend the teams will portray their Hyperloop pod designs, which will be judged by the university professors and SpaceX engineers.
The winning teams of the Design Weekend will move onto the final stage of the contest where they will be provided with the chance to evaluate their pods on a one-mile Hyperloop test track which will be constructed near the SpaceX headquarters, according to the TechInsider.
The Los Angeles-based startup said that it would offer $50,000 to the selected winning team of the Design Weekend for constructing the pods for the last round. Moreover, the company said it would also give $20,000 to the selected runner-up team towards their pods.
Recently, the company said it has signed deals in order to fix the Propulsion Open Air Test (POAT) on an a 50 acre site which it has secured in the Industrial Park in the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Hyperloop Tech expects to begin its testing process in the first quarter of 2016. According to MERCED SUN-STAR, the UC Merced Hypercats team, involving four mechanical engineering students, is winning the major exposure in the worldwide contest started by Elon Musk, the co-founder of Tesla Motors and PayPal, to accelerate the growth of Hyperloop.
The "real world" is the greatest obstacle for the future of transportation system. Both Hyperloop Tech and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies are facing a host of hurdles including finding funding, receiving land rights and convincing lawmakers, Giegel added.
The HyperLums team from Lahore University of Management Sciences has been nominated for the pod design contest, according to the recent reports.
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