Friday and Saturday will bring more than 120 teams from across the nation and world to Texas A&M for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend. 

Students and members of the public will be able to interact with different futuristic transportation designs at various display set up in Kyle Field’s Hall of Champions. This “Futuristic Transportation display” will feature Occulus Rift technology, a Hendo Hoverboard — a hoverboard that “floats” above a surface due to magnetism — and the cockpit of an F-22 fighter jet.  

The Hyperloop is the brainchild of Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, who hopes to change the way passengers and cargo are transported between cities. A passenger or cargo pod that travels through a semi-vacuum tube at around 700 miles per hour would cut inter-city travel time down to just minutes instead of hours, if the technology proves feasible. 

Anthony Foxx, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, will deliver an address on the future of transportation to the competition teams. Seven teams from Texas A&M will compete in the final competition round. An afternoon awards ceremony on Saturday will give out more than $250,000 in cash awards to team designs for prototype construction. 

 Staff Report