Daniel C. Harris
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Robotics
HYPERLOOP
Elon Musk is in pursuit of the idea of supersonic travel through a creation he coined as Hyperloop. Unlike normal trains or subway travel, this machine would travel in a tube suspended by air cushions and propelled by both linear induction motors and an axial air compressor. The competition was mainly created for teams to submit full scale pod designs, however, being only a small team of 10 people, UPenn Hyperloop elected to design and model a full scale axial compressor.
Not only did we pass the first round design phase but we made it to the final round of judging and several of our members flew out
to Austin, Texas to be judged. While we did not win, we received more than 8 invitations from other teams to merge because they were impressed with our work, some of them were finalists in the competition.