Dubai: A panel of global judges assembled in Dubai awarded a French team first prize in the Dubai International Hyperloop Competition on Tuesday.
Team Mobius earned kudos for the best design concept to build a prototype of what’s called a Hyperloop, a futuristic subsonic propulsion tube capable of shuttling passengers at speeds of up to 1,200km/h.
Of six finalists shortlisted from 67 teams which competed in the 48-hour Build Earth Live 2016 competition hosted by Dubai, team Mobius was crowned winner at Emirates Towers for the best concept to eventually build a multibillion dollar, high-speed 127-kilometre-long commuter tube from Dubai to Fujairah to slash travel time to 10 minutes.
The 20-member team Mobius created by global firm Systra of France submitted engineering renderings that illustrate a complete transport network with stations that would whisk passengers — if and when built — safely in record time.
In a statement on Tuesday, organisers said, “Mobius was ranked first among the finalists after the panel evaluated the projects from several perspectives, including their technical and economic aspects, as well as their actual ability to reinvent the high-speed transportation sector for passengers and cargo alike. The panel also evaluated the degree of safety and security that the projects provide, as well their efficiency and sustainability.”
“Finalists had to provide designs for a parallel Hyperloop system — one for passengers, and another for cargo — that would eventually converge into one station at the finish line. Projects also had to include stations complete with spacious halls for passengers to board the trains,” organisers said.
Mobius project architects Paola Arellano and Viadana Darras accepted the Build Earth Live 2016 Award at Tuesday’s event hosted by Dubai Future Foundation and organised by partners Asite.
Arellano told Gulf News that her team’s conceptual submission did not factor costs into the design works.
Asked if she hopes Dubai would make her team’s winning Hyperloop design a reality, Arellano said, “I hope it will happen. They [Dubai] have the will, so why not?”
In a world obsessed with fast cars, fast smartphones and fast food, Arellano said the Hyperloop’s subsonic speed capability mirrors modern society
“Everyone is looking to do everything fast. The question is, what do we want to with the time we save?” she said shortly after the announcement.
Dubai-based Systra general project manager Michael Hoghooghi was ecstatic with his firm’s win and said it was based upon “safety, security and moving people with confidence. What earned the win is the totality of the solution, how complete the approach was to the network”.
He said the project met all competition calls such as “form, fit and function”.
Saif Al Aleeli, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, said: “Announcing the first-place winner of the Hyperloop competition is a milestone that makes evident our resolve to move forward with our plans to build the future today.”
He said the competition drew international interest to Dubai.
“The first edition of Dubai’s International Hyperloop Competition has accomplished a great deal of success and commanded global attention. The contest attracted commendable international participation in a record period of time. This drive to participate in the challenge reflects Dubai’s positive international image as a world-leading platform to implement the planet’s most advanced technologies.”
Tony Ryan, CEO Astite, congratulated all six finalists who, he said, “worked their backsides off getting here for this 48-hour competition. It’s all about the teams, about the people who rolled their sleeves up”.
Ryan said that in this year’s eighth annual Build Earth Live competition received more than 10 times the submissions that it normally receives.
Nathan Doughty, group chief operating officer and executive director of Asite, was on hand for opening remarks of the full day of Hyperloop presentations.
He said the “Hyperloop is a fascinating and awe-inspiring possibility” of the future.
Ratish Narain, CEO Astite India, said this year’s competition received 266 different models from 67 team entries from 29 countries that resulted in 10,000 published files.
To access the competition’s website, go to https://www.buildearthlive.com
So, what is a hyperloop?
Dubai: Hyperloop is a system that integrates a low-pressure pipe linking two stations, enabling passenger capsules within the tube to travel at high speeds of up to 1,200km/h.
Using the controlled environment of a tube, passengers are shot at high speeds in capsules that ride in a low-pressure environment for less resistance and without friction, similar to the way Maglev high-speed trains travel without wheels along high-speed lines.
The hyperloop design was first conceived in a 2010 whitepaper by Elon Reeve Musk, a South African-born billionaire inventor who helped found Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
Musk described his open-sourced hyperloop system as a “cross between a Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table” for combining subsonic speed and the levitating ability of air pressure.
Hyperloop pipes of the future could be built above ground and topped with solar panels to power the propulsion systems of induction motors and air compressors to push capsules along.
The hyperloop system has already been proposed as a future project between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and would shorten the trip to the capital to only 15 minutes for passengers riding inside the tube.
Event organisers say Hyperloop technology is capable of reducing the time required for travel between New York and Beijing to just two hours. Experts say that the cost of building a single Hyperloop tube will cost just 10 per cent of the cost of building conventional high-speed trains.
