TU Delft named overall winner for first phase of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition

Since Elon Musk's SpaceX launched the Hyperloop Pod competition in late 2015, the overall winning title for the first competition was recently awarded to the Delft University of Technology. The two-phase competition invited students and independent engineers worldwide to design a human-scale Hyperloop pod, in hopes to help accelerate SpaceX's development of a functional Hyperloop prototype.

Only three teams were able to run their pods on the 1.2 kilometer test tube during the final competition weekend of Phase 1 at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California on January 27-29: TU Delft, the Technical University of Munich, and MIT. The pods had to achieve the highest possible speed.

Read on for more.

Their pod wasn't the fastest one, but TU Delft achieved the highest overall score and won best innovative design out of the three finalist teams, which included Technical University of Munich and MIT. The Technical University of Munich won for the fastest pod, while MIT won for safety and reliability and third place overall.

Speed wasn't the main focus for the Delft Hyperloop team, said team captain Tim Houter to NU.nl. “We wanted to deliver an innovative good contribution. That is why we have focused not only on speed, but also in efficiency in the building and on the cost and safety of the capsule. On that basis we have won this award," Houter said.

Here's a glimpse of the top three-winning pods:

TU Delft - website

“The Delft design is very light: through the use of light and strong carbon fibre the Delft pod of about 4,5 meters long and 1 meter in height weights only 149 kilograms. Using permanent magnets the Delft pod floats above the track, resulting in very little energy usage. The team expects that the prototype should be able to reach a speed of over 200 kilometres per hour in the 1.2 kilometer long test tube during the finals. In a longer tube, the Delft prototype would be able to speed up to 1.200 kilometers per hour.”

Technical University of Munich - website

MIT - website

Moving forward, Hyperloop Competition II is currently scheduled for this summer at SpaceX’s Hyperloop test track. It will solely focus on maximum speed. The second competition is open to new student teams interested in competing on the test track, as well as to existing student teams who have already built and tested pods for a chance to refine their designs.

Check out SpaceX's video of each team's pod flight below!

Note: This article was modified to include the Technical University of Munich and MIT's pod designs and team websites.