The idea of Hyperloop technology was first introduced by Elon Musk in 2013. It is a high-speed form of transportation (similar to a train) that allows people to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles within 30 minutes. The Hyperloop has a tube and pod in its construction — the two main components of the Hyperloop. The tube is a vacuum and can be constructed for different distances (similar to railroads). The pod rides inside of the tube using an ibeam and can be accelerated in different ways.

The Hyperloop will help to improve the environment and humans’ mobility. Cars, planes, boats, and other forms of transportation emit a huge amount of pollutants, while the Hyperloop does not emit any gases. The Hyperloop will take a lot of investment to build, however, once we have it, it can help improve the environment. People will be able to travel much faster, which would increase benefits both for businesses as well as people’s own leisure. With the Hyperloop we would be able to reduce congestion, as we will have one more essential form of transportation.

Badgerloop is a student organization at UW-Madison that was created in 2015. The team of engineers and students from other majors built a Hyperloop pod and presented it at the SpaceX competition. At the design weekend two years ago, Badgerloop got third place among 127 teams. They also won an innovation award for their design at the competition in January 2017, and an innovation award for their propulsion system at the competition in August 2017.  They are the only team who received two awards. Currently, Badgerloop is building their third pod for the competition coming up in summer 2018.