a team like ours, is that while we don’t have any
money, we have a ton of free labor.”
While offering up their free labor, the CU
Hyperloop students also gain invaluable
experience in engineering.
Senior Cody Wheeler said he’s enjoyed helping
younger students get involved and learn systems
like computer-aided design.
“Then there’s the entire innovative design aspect
of things, where we have to think of our own
original ideas and actually be able to implement
them right now, which is awesome,” he said.
Sophomore Collin Ruprecht said he joined the
project not expecting a lot of responsibility
because he was a freshman.
“Suddenly I was doing a large part of a major
subsystem,” he said. “I was really glad that I was
able to get a lot of experience — and it wasn’t just
like, ‘Here, hold a wrench.’”
Since July, the team has moved the tunnel boring
machine from Wagner’s backyard into a workshop
in Lafayette. They’re still finishing construction
and are planning to conduct smaller digging tests
before the competition.
At the end of the day, the competition is more
about innovation and recruitment than it is the
actual tunnels, Wagner said.
“There’s really no way to get experience with
tunnel boring, as it stands right now, except
through this competition,” Wagner said. “There’s
also new tech being developed. As far as we’re
aware, nobody’s ever tried this kind of tunnel
support system before, so we’re going to be the
first, and we’ll see if it works.”