IIT Madras Avishkar Hyperloop Team Qualifies For European Hyperloop Week

Indian Institute of Technology Madras’Team Avishkar Hyperloop has made rapid strides since it became the debut finalist and the only Asian team to qualify for the finals of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019, a global contest organized by SpaceX, the American aerospace manufacturer. It was one of the Top 21 teams out of more than 1,600 teams participating globally in this event.

40 students of Team Avishkar collaborated on this Hyperloop pod development from their homes to completely revamp the pods’ sub-systems with scalable and efficient technologies. In the past few months, they have manufactured a Hyperloop Pod Prototype and tested the novel technology. 

The students’ hard work has enabled Team Avishkar Hyperloop to qualify for the European Hyperloop Week, being held in Valencia, Spain, from 19 to 25 July 2021. The team will participate virtually due to the pandemic-related travel restrictions. 

Avishkar Hyperloop is the student team from Centre For Innovation (CFI), IIT Madras, which is working on an indigenous design and development of a self-propelled, completely autonomous Hyperloop Pod in India. The team is working with a vision to develop technologies for future modes of high-speed transportation with applications in various fields including Defence, Logistics and Aerospace Industry, among others.

More than a competition, the European Hyperloop Week is a confluence of student teams, start-ups, and companies working in the Hyperloop domain. It will act as a boiling pot for discussions on the reliability, scalability, and feasibility of this future technology. The competition is being organized by four well-known European student teams in partnership with companies such as Virgin Hyperloop and AECOM.