As was the case in previous years, Swissloop has again claimed a series of awards at European Hyperloop Week in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. In total, ten awards were handed out. The team, which was founded in 2017 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and currently consists of 38 people, more than held its own against student competition from around the world by claiming five awards overall, further details of which can be found in a press release. The event is designed to help students, businesses and industry experts in their efforts to develop a scalable, efficient and sustainable hyperloop system for the weightless transportation of people and goods in tubes.
Swissloop was present at the event with a prototype measuring around 2.5 meters in length and weighing 250 kilograms that can levitate in all directions with the help of electromagnetism. It is named after Bertrand Piccard, the solar aircraft pioneer and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation. With this prototype, Swissloop won the Electrical Subsystem Award, the Traction Award, the Würth Electronics Thermal Management Award and the Sense & Control Award.
“Swissloop is particularly proud of the fifth award, the prestigious Complete Pod Award, which crowned their prototype the best of the entire European Hyperloop Week”, as team lead Carl Brander explains in the press release. Three other prizes went to the Delft Hyperloop from TU Delft and one to the mu-zero Hyperloop developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Boosted by a tailwind from these successes, the team is already preparing for its next challenge: the European Hyperloop Week 2024 in Zurich, for which the team intends to integrate further innovations in its prototype that will be presented on this occasion.
