A Hyper-Hyper Week in Zurich
Mid-July 2024, Zurich turned into the epicenter of the European Hyperloop scene, hosting more than twenty teams for a scientific and technological competition. Among the participants was the ETH Zurich Focus Project Team "Swissloop", enjoying the home advantage on the campus of Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich (IPZ).
A Hyper-Hyper Week in Zurich
Mid-July 2024, Zurich turned into the epicenter of the European Hyperloop scene, hosting more than twenty teams for a scientific and technological competition. Among the participants was the ETH Zurich Focus Project Team "Swissloop", enjoying the home advantage on the campus of Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich (IPZ).
The pod looks like a bathtub on rails. Five young men stand around it under a tent, shielding themselves from the scorching sun on the innovation campus next to the Dübendorf airport. They wear thick red rubber gloves, and one of them carefully inserts the battery. This pod, or transport capsule, is a project of Swissloop, a student Focus Project at ETH Zurich whose teamleader is, at the time of writing, Lina de Windt. Swissloop aims to make transporting people and goods at supersonic speeds a reality.
The European Hyperloop Week was held in Zurich from 15 to 21 July 2024, with test and demonstration days on Friday and Saturday on the campus of Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich. Details of the event can be found at hyperloopweek.com.
Achieving this involves overcoming two major physical obstacles: rolling resistance and air resistance. The pod floats above the steel rail using magnets and will eventually travel through a nearly vacuum-sealed tube.
This concept, called Hyperloop, is based on the 2013 white paper "Hyperloop Alpha," developed by Elon Musk and a team of engineers from Tesla and SpaceX. Teams worldwide are working on this technology.
In July 2024, the European Hyperloop Week took place in Dübendorf. Teams exchanged ideas, presented prototypes, and competed against each other. Ziao Tang, a sixth-semester mechanical engineering student, believes the Swissloop team has a good chance: "I would say our pod is the closest to the actual Hyperloop so far," he says. He adds, "If everything works."
I would say our pod is the closest to the actual Hyperloop so far – if everything works.
»Ziao Tang
The battery is connected, a student brings a bag of croissants, and the checklist is followed between bites. More and more students arrive on scooters from their offices at the ETH Hangar. Eventually, a student clicks the decisive button on her laptop. A whirring sound follows, the pod jolts back a few centimeters, moves forward a bit, and then stops.
The core team consults briefly, makes adjustments, and after a few minutes, is ready for another attempt. The whirring sound returns, but again, nothing happens. They consult and adjust, then try again: the pod starts moving silently. A few cheers and jokes are shared as the scooter-riding students head back to the hangar.
There was still much work to be done ahead of the 2024 European Hyperloop Week.
