Complete System Award

UPV Hyperloop, the team from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), made up of 48 students from different degrees working to develop the transport of the future, won the European Hyperloop Week (EHW) held last week in Zurich (Switzerland).

With its new vehicle, Vèsper, Hyperloop UPV has been crowned the Complete System Award by the competition jury, the most prestigious prize in a competition in which the UPV team competed against many of the top world universities.

The Rector of UPV, José E. Capilla, who attended the EHW, together with the Vice-Rector for Students and Entrepreneurship of UPV, Alberto Conejero, was "very satisfied" with the success of the UPV team.

It is the result of the support that our students receive at the UPV, a support which goes far beyond the classroom," said the Rector, for whom "it has been a pleasure to share with them the moments and emotions of the different tests. They have competed against teams from the most prestigious technological universities in Europe, and to be crowned champions makes them very proud of the excellent work done with so much effort over many months".

Hugo Albert, team leader, was "very happy for this victory, which is the result of the effort of this great team and the decisive support of our sponsors, to whom we are very grateful".

A solar panel-powered engine with the acceleration of a Formula 1 car

Vèsper, as Albert points out, "has a liquid cooling system for an electrical system equivalent to that of a current electric car, a chassis that only accounts for 10% of the total weight, a pressurised capsule that withstands low pressures without compromising its interior space, and a wireless communication system. It also has its own chargers, more than 250 sensors, a levitation control that makes us spend half as much energy as last year with a larger, heavier vehicle, and a solar-powered motor that accelerates like a Formula 1 car".

About UPV Hyperloop

Hyperloop UPV was born in 2014 with the purpose of meeting the challenge launched by Elon Musk through his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, to advance the development of hyperloop technology thanks to its free hardware feature.

The Future Concept (2016) was the prototype launched by this team. It is part of Design Factory, the institutional platform of the UPV that promotes and supports the realisation of extracurricular activities, contributing to the formative development and acquisition of cross-curricular competencies of its student body.