ORU Students Invited To Finals For SpaceX Hyperloop Competition

Imagine traveling on a cushion of air at say, the speed of sound - 767 miles per hour.

Can't imagine it? Well, 22 teams of college engineering students are going to do the imagining for us; and one of those teams is from ORU.

In ORU’s 3D visualization and fabrication lab, engineering students known as Team Codex are just back from Texas A&M where they were selected as finalists in SpaceX’s Hyperloop competition.

"We're creating brand new technologies that will be used in the real Hyperloop," student Brandon Braun said.

The Hyperloop is a high-speed transportation system envisioned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. It would feature capsules or pods traveling at high speeds through vacuum tubes on a cushion of air.

Their design would, in effect, levitate a series of wheels each with an array of magnets, spinning at a high speed, which would create a magnetic field and the pod would rise above the floor of the Hyperloop and float.

"We were one of 22 teams selected to move on to the next phase. Among those are like MIT, Virginia Tech," Braun said. "We are up there with some of the top dog universities, so we are very excited about that."

And they should be; 300 teams began the competition - 22 teams remain.

The next phase is actually building and testing their design, then competing against the other teams at the SpaceX test track in June - fastest time wins.

The students said they need some help building the pod; about $100,000 for construction and testing.

Braun said, "We have a lot of great advisors to help make the pod as best as it can be. We're going to win this thing."

They are the only team from Oklahoma to make it to the finals, and they could use help getting to the finish. You can email codexhyperloop@gmail.com for more information.