Student engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came out as the overall victors in the recently concluded SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend.
The awarding ceremony was held on Saturday, during which more than 1,000 students gathered at the Texas A&M University System to await the announcement of winners.
The second, third, fourth and fifth placers were Delft University of Technology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Tech and University of California Irvine, respectively.
SpaceX also announced numerous other winners for specific categories such as propulsion, design, levitation, braking and innovation.
"Congratulations to the finalists and all the student teams who competed in the first-ever SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition," says Texas A&M University System chancellor John Sharp.
The two-day competition started on Friday when over 100 university teams presented their design concepts to the judges. The teams came from 27 U.S. states and 20 countries.
The winners will be given a chance to create and test their pods at the world's first Hyperloop test track that is currently being installed near SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The competition aims to excite engineers and the public for the highly advanced transport system introduced by SpaceX's founder Elon Musk in 2013. Aside from that, the event may also serve as a countermeasure for the skeptics who have said that the Hyperloop was impractical, over-the-top and highly expensive.
The Hyperloop is a conceptual ground transport system proposed by Musk and Tesla. The tube-like vehicle is said to transport passengers in aluminum pods by up to 760 mph, making travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco possible in 30 minutes. The Hyperloop is looking at transforming passengers' transportation experience while ensuring safety and speed.
The estimated cost of the Hyperloop is $6 billion, but that's just for the passenger type. For a more extensive model that can serve as a freight transport vehicle, expenses are estimated to reach about $7.5 billion.
Overall, the competition was a success, and there is no other person more thrilled than Musk. He was happy with the enthusiasm showed by the participants throughout the weekend. For this, he promised in his speech that it would not be the last. SpaceX will hold more competitions for the Hyperloop in the future.
