UC students travel at the speed of sound
A team of University of Cincinnati students is working at the speed of sound. Literally.
The team, Hyperloop UC, built a solar-powered pod that could transport passengers from Cincinnati to New York City in less than an hour. Cincinnatians could commute to work in Chicago in 30 minutes.
“It’s something that is going to change the way people travel in the near future,” said Sid Thatham, an engineering graduate student who leads Hyperloop UC operations.
In 2014, Tesla founder Elon Musk challenged the world to create a sustainable tube-based mode of transportation that offers the convenience of a train and travels faster than airplanes.
Dhaval Shiyani, founder and team captain of Hyperloop UC, accepted that challenge about two years ago. He was reading Musk's paper about the concept while working the graveyard shift in Daniels residence hall at UC and decided to give it a shot.
His idea started as a back of the napkin sketch two years ago. Now the pod, which cost about $200,000 to build, is ready for testing.
Shiyani's team of more than 60 UC engineering, design and marketing students, unveiled the prototype of the passenger pod that levitates through a tube and travels at near supersonic speeds.
"It's almost twice as fast as an airplane and half as cheap," said Shiyani, an aerospace engineering graduate student in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.
The pod reaches speeds up to 750 mph, just below the speed of sound (768 mph). If successful, the average cost of a ride would be $27 and it could move than 3,350 passengers an hour. The goal is to make it as easy as booking an Uber.
Hyperloop is weather-proof, so you don't have to worry about rain or snow slowing down a trip.
It doesn't use any fossil fuels. The unique structure has a carbon fiber skin that is nearly indestructible, weighs about 70 pounds and uses a magnetic braking system.
The team is shipping the prototype to California, via UPS, to do a test run on Nov. 1.
The students will then make a few tweaks before the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition where it will compete against 30 other teams on Musk's custom one-mile track in January 2017 in Hawthorne, California.
The team's design was selected as a finalist in June from a pool of more than 1,200 companies and universities worldwide, including one from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. UC is the only group representing Ohio universities.
"I never imagined we would have a physical structure," Shiyani said. "Maybe in a decade or so we'll have a working system."
He wanted to contribute to the development of the hyperloop in some way since Musk named it an open-source project.
"If I work alone, I can contribute a small amount," Shiyani said. "But if I make a team," there is a group that finds "30 design points or iterations that do or do not work."
UC trustees chairman Rob Richardson Jr. said innovation isn’t about making money, it’s about the spirit and passion that anything is possible.
“You can rebel against status quo,” he told the student team. “No matter how many people doubt you.”
Richardson is committed to proving that UC is leading the way in innovation and said the work of these students is evidence of that.
“The next mode of transportation will be led by our students,” he said. “And we are going to change the world.”