S. Vishnu Sharma
IITMadras (Indian Institute of Technology Madras) will organise India’s first Global Hypeerloop Pod Competition 2020. The final round of the global competition will be hosted in IIT-Madras in July this year. More information can be obtained on this link ‘https://ihpc2020.web.app/’
About competition
The competition is a global one and is intended to enhance awareness and enthusiasm about Hyperloop in India. Participants of this competition will build a subscale prototype transport vehicle to demonstrate its technical feasibility.
Mr. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, proposed the idea of Hyperloop to the world in 2013 through a whitepaper ‘Hyperloop Alpha.’
IITMadras to host international competition
IITMadras to host international competition
He has been organizing the International Hyperloop Pod Competition for the past few years in Hawthorne, California, through SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company.
Participants
The contest’s objective is to encourage student teams in India and abroad to develop a Hyperloop Pod and compete to build the fastest, most innovative and efficient design and prototype of the relevant technologies in the field.
Engineering colleges located across the globe can take part in the event, they can ideate, design and implement their ideas for the Hyperloop Pods. The information about this event can be obtained on the website ‘https://ihpc2020.web.app/’
This competition will focus on multiple key aspects involved in designing, manufacturing and testing an Hyperloop Pod.
The Indian Hyperloop Pod Competition 2020 will comprise a design briefing round and a final practical test round. All the participants will have to provide their intent to compete by March 2020.
This will be followed by the first round consisting of design submission in April. These reports will consist of design overview, subsystem details, safety measures and business plan of the Pod.
These reports will be judged and evaluated by various distinguished professors and experts in the respective domains.
The short-listed teams selected for the final round will have to develop a fully functional prototype of their design for demonstration at Hyperloop Test Track in IITMadras Campus.
Based on the evaluation of the submitted design reports, selected teams will be invited for the final round to showcase and test their prototype at IITMadras from 9-12 July 2020.
The teams here would be evaluated on the basis of various factors such as subsystem design, overall aesthetics, business plan amongst many others.
The judges for each of the criteria will be one or more members of a panel consisting of professors, alumni and domain experts. The top 3 teams will be awarded finally based on their calculated cumulative score.
This competition will allow the selected teams to run their Pods on an open-air track, which would then eventually scale up to being enclosed in a vacuum tube.
The contest timeline
Teams willing to compete must send their Intent to Compete Form Due by 31 March. Design Reports Due is on 20 April. Teams selected for the final round will be announced by 25 April. Pod testing and safety checks will be done from 9 to 11 July. Final run of all the pods will happen on 12 July.
Avishkar involvement
A group of previous and current members of TeamAvishkar will be contributing in running the Hyperloop Pod competition at IIT Madras. Team Avishkar will not be participating in the July competition as a competitor and will assist in creating a platform for all the participating teams and enable them to gain a crucial and intensive experience in the development of Hyperloop Technology.
It is worth recollecting that Team Avishkar from IIT Madras was the only team from Asia to qualify for the finals of 2019 Hyperloop Pod Competition, developing India’s first self-propelled Hyperloop Pod.
What is Hyperloop
Hyperloop is the fifth mode of transportation, a high-speed train that travels in a near-vacuum tube. The reduced air resistance allows the capsule inside the tube to reach speeds of more than 1000 km/h, conveying people or objects at high speed while being very efficient, thereby drastically reducing travel times over medium-range distances.
Faculty’s voice
Professor S.R. Chakravarthy, Faculty Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop said they are excited at the prospect of hosting this competition at IITMadras. Hyperloop is a disruptive technology because it can potentially be an inter-city metro.
‘We need to be at the forefront of developing this important technology to move a large number of people in a country like India. The competition is a great way of on-boarding the next generation for this developmental process.’