SpaceX Chooses Texas A&M To Host Hyperloop Design Competition

Some of the best and brightest engineering minds from around the country will be coming to Texas A&M University in January for a SpaceX competition to design and build the company’s proposed Hyperloop transit pod.

The competition’s design weekend, which SpaceX announced Monday will be hosted by the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M, is geared toward university students and independent engineering teams. It begins January 9, 2016.

In 2013, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk outlined his futuristic rapid-transit system that involves transporting passengers via pods in pressurized tubes above ground. The pods theoretically would move as fast as 800 miles per hour.

At the January competition in College Station, teams will meet with SpaceX officials to present their ideas. The best designs will be tested in the summer of 2016 at a one-mile test track to be built adjacent to SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California headquarters.

“Student innovation is a hallmark of Texas A&M University and we will look forward to hosting the Hyperloop competition design weekend,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System. “We’re honored that SpaceX chose A&M as the site for this unique event.”

Michael K. Young, President of Texas A&M, said “We are honored that Texas A&M has been selected to host the design competition for this exciting and potentially trailblazing endeavor. It’s another good example of how our engineering students in the Dwight Look College of Engineering, who are taught by world-class design experts, are viewed in the realm of innovation and all that it embraces. I am confident that Mr. Musk and his colleagues at SpaceX will be highly pleased they chose Texas A&M as the site for this program that will attract and challenge some of the brightest students in America.”

SpaceX officials approached Texas A&M in April about hosting the competition and asking how best to engage the top engineering programs in the country.

“Competitions such as these bring out the best in our students,” said Dr. M. Katherine Banks, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Engineering. “Given that innovation is the essence of engineering, partnering with SpaceX is important to provide students with the hands-on experiences needed to prepare them to make an impact in today’s increasingly technological world.”

September 15 is the deadline for applicants to submit their intent to compete.