Final Project -- Angela Roberts

UMD Loop: Gearing up for Transportation's Future

Started by SpaceX in 2015, the Hyperloop Pod Competition challenges teams of students around the world to build a vehicle capable of traveling high speeds in a vacuum-sealed tube underground. At the time when I started photographing UMD's pod team, SpaceX hadn't yet issued any hints to what this year's challenge would look like. But rather than sit in limbo, UMD's team has decided to push forward in building up its membership and pitching designs. Left without any specific guidelines, though, the team must be prepared for anything.

Nil Patel, a junior aerospace major, stands outside of Institute for Physical Science Technology — the building where UMD Loop meets, and where active team members spend at least 90% of their time. Nil leads one of the Loop subteams.

A dingy hallway runs through the basement of IPST, leading to the room where members of the University of Maryland's Hyperloop team meet to discuss the contraption's structure.

An old piece of machinery sits in the basement of IPST. After walking past it every day for months, Hyperloop members hardly even notice it anymore.

Nil Patel listens closely as his teammates discuss how to cut back on the structure's weight —which will be important as the gang strives to engineer a contraption that will whip along at 500mph underground.

A Styrofoam model rocket leans against shelves that line the basement room's walls — a tiny version of the Falcon 9 rocket two team alumni are now working on with SpaceX.

An old coffee can filled with wires, pens and pencils sits at the center of a table strewn with charging cables and calculators.

All members listen carefully as Nil explains what they're charged with doing next.

Nil stands at the entrance of the team's workspace. They share the building with Terps Racing, so the room's walls are covered in a smattering of car posters.

Pretty much every surface in the team's workspace is crowded with wires, tools and other devices that nobody ever puts away.

A cluster of batteries sits in a cardboard box, pushed underneath a table.

Nil fiddles away at the mechanism, partially shoved underneath a plastic shield meant to protect team members from unexpected explosions during testing.

Nil carefully measures a structure atop of last year's pod. After the team travelled with the mechanism to Los Angeles for the summer's competition, members disassembled its casing.

Nil squints as he snaps a photo of the pod's structure. The sub-team Nil leads has been charged with designing a skeleton for the mechanism that is lighter — but also capable of withstanding more force.

A tangled mess of wires connect to three devices that measure voltage.

A designated metal recycling bin sits outside of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, the building that houses the garage where the University of Maryland's Hyperloop team works.

On Wednesday, UMD Loop's sub teams were required to present what they had designed over the course of the semester. Here, team members work to tighten up their presentations before the big moment.

Yash Mehta laughs as he presents the power train subteam's preliminary designs. 

Nil tightens up the chassis design while James presents.

Project manager Joe Fulton, who everyone calls "Rusty," takes notes carefully as Yash presents.