St. John’s Students Enjoy SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition

Team Leader Andrew Awad and Elizabeth Awad present the team's finalized pod. (Photo courtesy of Team HyperLift)

Few people would expect that a team of high school students could enter Elon Musk’s rigorous SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, let alone finish in 9th place. Team HyperLift, composed of six St. John’s School students, did just that, defying the odds as the only non-collegiate team at the competition.

Musk’s goal for the competition was to further the development of high-speed transportation and to encourage student innovation. SpaceX presented each team with a challenge: design and construct the best high-speed pod, a capsule which would transport passengers. Teams that succeeded were given the opportunity to test their pods at the SpaceX Hyperloop track in Hawthorne, California, where Musk himself works on developing the 760 mph transportation of the future.

HyperLift team members meet SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. (Photo courtesy of Team HyperLift)

In January 2016, Team HyperLift was part of a select group chosen from over 1,200 teams to attend Texas A&M’s Design Weekend. After advancing to the building stage, they were one of only 27 teams to make it to the final competition in California.

“We weren’t allowed to enter the competition, which was geared towards college, grad, and post-grad students, but I entered anyway because I saw it was such an amazing opportunity,” Team Leader Andrew Awad said.

The team was composed of seniors Jonathan Bloom, Katie Malcolm and Andrew Awad, as well as juniors Robert Gottschalk, Elizabeth Awad and Michael He.

“None of us had ever done anything like this before,” Awad said. “We had to teach ourselves everything, so Google and Youtube became our best friends. But because of that challenge, we were able to learn so much through trial and error. It was the key to our success.”

The young group’s tenacity impressed SpaceX employees, as well as several companies, including Nickelodeon and Logitech, who became team sponsors. The group even had the opportunity to meet Elon Musk himself.

“Elon Musk is one of my heroes, so meeting him was a dream come true,” Awad said. “It was extraordinary. Our SpaceX advisors told him how we overcame a problem and he was super impressed by that.”  

The overall atmosphere was very supportive, and the high school group felt no pressure from other teams.

A film crew from the History Channel's upcoming show, Project Impossible, visited the HyperLift team at their TXRX Labs makerspace. (Photo courtesy of Team HyperLift)

“It wasn’t really a competition; it was a mission to bring the Hyperloop to reality,” Awad said. “We could ask our neighbors for extra parts because other teams were so supportive, and that’s what made the experience special.”

By late October, the History Channel had heard about Team HyperLift’s progress in the competition. The channel’s film crew chronicled the students for an episode of Project Impossible, a television show about engineering feats that will premiere this fall.

“It was an amazing opportunity, and something none of us expected,” Awad said. “I hoped that we would make it to the build stage, but from the beginning, there was a steep road ahead of us.”

While other teams used magnets or wheels, Team Hyperlift used air to levitate its pod. The team primarily used parts from local hardware stores to build the structure at the downtown makerspace TXRX Labs.

In addition to reaching 9th place, the HyperLift team also received Honorable Mention for Performance and Operations, as they were the first team in the world to successfully levitate their pod in a vacuum chamber. This was one of Awad’s favorite moments.

“Seeing the pod and all of hard work come together was really inspirational,” Awad said.

SpaceX plans to host another Hyperloop competition in the summer, but Team HyperLift will not be participating, as the majority of the team will have graduated. Awad looks forward to future competitions with his college Hyperloop team.

“We faced insurmountable odds and still ended up on top,” Awad said. “To people who see a challenge or something that seems impossible - try it.”

For more information and pictures of Team HyperLift, visit teamhyperlift.com or follow them on Twitter @teamhyperlift.