Hyperloop UC to Unveil Competition Pod

Hyperloop UC, the University of Cincinnati’s interdisciplinary team, will unveil their entry for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition on Monday, Oct. 17. The pod will be used during the next phase of the international Hyperloop competition to be held at a test track next to SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, in January 2017.

After months of preparation, a team of University of Cincinnati students will pull the curtain back on their Hyperloop pod, a prototype they think could reshape high-speed transportation as part of the competition dreamed up by Tesla founder Elon Musk. As CEO of the aerospace firm SpaceX, Musk has challenged the world to submit ideas — and now prototypes — for a tube-based passenger system that would allow for travel between cities at the speed of sound.

The UC team will first unveil their Hyperloop pod to sponsors and media during a private ceremony, followed by a public unveiling at 4 p.m., Monday, Oct. 17, in the Hunter Room at the Russell C. Myers Alumni Center on campus.

In a matter of months, their prototype gets rolled out for real.

More than 60 students from Hyperloop UC — engineers, designers and marketers — have been busy finalizing designs, manufacturing parts and synthesizing segments into a seamless prototype for the January 27-29 competition when they will insert their pod for takeoff in a mile-long test track.

UC’s group is one of just 30 that has advanced to the test round of the Hyperloop competition out of more than 1,200 teams worldwide. If successful, the venture could completely shift the way commuters travel. Cincinnati to Chicago, for example, could be travelled in a half hour — all while passengers relax in a capsule that levitates through the tube at more than 700 mph.

"We are very proud of the design we have created,” says Dhaval Shiyani, Hyperloop UC President and aerospace engineering graduate student in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS). “It hits all the marks with respect to performance, safety and scalability. Our education at UC has taught us well, and we are confident that we will be a force to reckon with come January.”

UC’s team was among 120 teams invited to Texas A&M University in January of 2016 to present their ideas, where they were then selected to be among just 30 who are moving on to the final round of competition. UC is also the only group representing Ohio universities.

“People always say that seeing is believing and personally, seeing Hyperloop UC’s design mature from rendering to prototype only further affirms that we are doing everything right here at the College of Engineering and Applied Science,” says Teik C. Lim, UC CEAS Dean and Herman Schneider Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “We are always challenging our students to be innovative and cutting-edge, and Hyperloop UC is all of that and so much more. 

“These are engineers, designers and business students all working side by side — just as they would in the real world. They have taken their vision, formed by a host of different minds, and together, have made it a reality. I couldn’t be more pleased with what they have accomplished. I wish them much success as they enter the final round.”

Find additional details on Hyperloop UC.