Over the course of the annual SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, engineering teams work to design and build hyperloop pods. The ultimate goal of the hyperloop concept is to achieve a mode of transportation that is high speed, intercontinental, and self-propelled. Such a system would both revolutionize the experience of transportation and offer a greener alternative to other modes of travel. The Hyperloop Pod Competition, which started in 2015 as the brainchild of Elon Musk, culminates with a weeklong competition each summer in Hawthorne, California, located in southwestern Los Angeles. Over the course of the competition week, participants get to test their hyperloop pod designs on a mile-long track (Figure 1) at speeds of approximately 500 km per hour. Each year, the top 20 teams worldwide are invited to the California testing facility, and the top three teams can run on the track under vacuum at the final event. As a first-time competitor, EPFLoop exceeded all expectations by making a presence in the finale as one of the three teams to run in vacuum that year. Even more impressive was the fact that they classified first at the end of the testing week and were told that their pod showed the highest design reliability. Overall, the EPFLoop team ended up placing third in the high-speed run on the final day of the competition due to the unexpected presence of dust on the test track, which affected their pod's performance. Their experience at SpaceX proved to be invaluable for many reasons.
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