{"id":4937,"date":"2017-03-14T08:44:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T15:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/Simcenter-Blog\/More-than-Hype-the-Hyperloop-is-happening\/ba-p\/396035"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:08:34","slug":"more-than-hype-the-hyperloop-is-happening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/more-than-hype-the-hyperloop-is-happening\/","title":{"rendered":"More than Hype: the Hyperloop is happening!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"TNWDirk Ahlborn speaking at TNW Amsterdam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A while back, I attended the TNW conference in Amsterdam<\/a>. It is basically tech-heaven for anyone and everyone who likes to skate on the edge of innovation. All the buzz-word types are there: disruptive innovators, IoT designers, Big Data gurus, white-hat hackers, smart fabric manufacturers and even a Danish \u201chobby consortium\u201d of rocket scientists<\/a>. But I digress: what really grabbed my attention after a brief chat with Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, was the Hyperloop revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how did Hyperloop get going? Two words: Elon Musk. When you have a visionary like Elon Musk on board, get ready for lots of innovative ideas. (The Hyperloop is one of his concepts he spring-boarded in a 2013 white paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we all know, vision is a great thing, but making the big jump from a visionary concept to working reality, well, that is a whole different ball game. On this front, Dirk Ahlborn seems to be orchestrating the Elon Musk vision on the Hyperloop project with a robust start-up mentality \u2013 the more experts the better. And with concrete Hyperloop plans in Slovakia, Quay Valley, California and a test center in Toulouse, France, this company seems to be on the right track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"HyperLoop_Concept_LosAngeles_01_transparent_copyright_(c)_2014_omegabyte3d.jpeg\"Hyperloop LA concept image (HTT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with something like the Hyperloop, one or two commercial ventures might not be enough. So what did Elon Musk and SpaceX do about this? They took a page out of the World Solar Car Challenge<\/a> and put the global engineering student community to work in the Hyperloop Pod Competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step was a design weekend in January 2016 in Texas where 115 teams presented concepts for a working pod. A year later, 27 teams were invited to test the pods on a one-mile test track right next to SpaceX\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, California in late January 2017. After a week of test-ready evaluations, three schools passed the preliminary structural integrity tests and were allowed to hit the test track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you who follow this type of stuff, you won\u2019t be surprised to hear that the Delft University of Technology, a Dutch engineering school that seems to excel at these innovation challenges, won the overall event with the Highest Overall Score and Design and Construction Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ISO_WIP02_00000.jpeg\"Winner so far (TU Delft)\"_46A9450.jpeg\"Unveiling: TU Delft Pod<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other top finalists included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n