HYPED wins awards at European Hyperloop Week 2026

At the European Hyperloop Week (EHW) competition, the HYPED team displayed and tested their Hyperloop pod, The Prodigal Son. The team of 16 students won the Engineering Talent award and The Mechatronics, Informatics and Control Group Award sponsored by Quanser. They were voted second of 23 teams for their design by the other competition attendees.  

Dubbed the transport of the future, Hyperloop is an ultra-high-speed transportation system in which passengers and cargo would be transported in cylindrical pods travelling at around 600-700 miles per hour. The system is designed to reduce aerodynamic drag and increase fuel efficiency, creating an environmentally friendlier alternative to current transport systems. Pods magnetically levitate slightly above a track and glide without the slowing effects of friction as they travel through near-vacuum tubes. 

Alba Braham, Incoming President of the HYPED student society, said, 

Taking our pod to European Hyperloop Week gave us the opportunity to showcase the past 3 years of engineering design and system integration. Winning the Engineering Talent Award highlights the technical milestones accomplished this year across the team. We're immensely grateful to everyone who supported us throughout EHW, and we can't wait to build on this success for next year's competition.

Dr Amer Syed, Chair of Student Innovation and Advisory Group, added, 

We are proud of HYPED’s achievement in securing Engineering Talent Award and The Mechatronics, Informatics and Control Group Award. These awards are the testament of innovation, dedication and collaborative effort of our students in engineering sustainable solutions and in inspiring the next generation of problem solvers. We congratulate the entire team and look forward to supporting their next prototype.

EHW is an annual international event dedicated to Hyperloop, a future mode of transport. University-based Hyperloop teams present vehicles and full-scale pods to a panel of judges, competing in several categories. EHW encourages innovation and technological development to make Hyperloop the fifth means of transport. 

Related links