February 4, 2016  

Purdue team selected to build, test Hyperloop designs

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —Purdue University students on the Hyperloop team will get the chance to bring their designs to life later this year. 

The 18-member team was among 30 teams selected to advance during the SpaceX Hyperloop pod competition last weekend at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

With the selection, the team now will have the opportunity to build the design this summer at the first Hyperloop Test Track in California.

The team presented its designs for Hyperloop transportation. The company, SpaceX, released the concept in 2013 that involves a passenger capsule, which might travel at nearly the speed of sound in a vacuum tube.

Purdue team members participated in a hyperloop class taught by faculty members, including Alina Alexeenko, an associate professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She said the project was a unique learning experience.

"This has taken the team to a different level beyond just engineering," Alexeenko said.

Students in the College of Engineering's schools of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Industrial Engineering, as well the departments of Computer Science and Physics and Astronomy in the College of Science all contributed to the project.

More than 100 student engineering teams representing 27 states and 20 countries participated in the competition. Teams were judged on categories ranging from design detail and innovation to feasibility for test tract competition. 

Writer: Brian L. Huchel, 765-494-2084, bhuchel@purdue.edu 

Source: Alinia Alexeenko, 765-496-1864, alexeenk@purdue.edu 

Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600

© 2015-22 Purdue University | An equal access/equal opportunity university | Copyright Complaints | Maintained by Office of Strategic Communications

Trouble with this page? Disability-related accessibility issue? Please contact News Service at purduenews@purdue.edu.