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“Can you beat the snail?”
Faster than a snail? The question sounds strange, but it is the declared goal of the team of 40 students from ETH Zurich, whom Gebrüder Weiss is supporting as an official logistics partner on their way to Elon Musk’s Not-A-Boring Competition.
What is the competition all about?
Swissloop Tunneling is conducting research alongside other international teams in the field of the Hyperloop. The concept has not yet been realized, but the Hyperloop will transport goods and people in capsules through large vacuum tubes at top speeds of more than 1,000 kilometers per hour in the future. The idea behind this future transport system comes from Elon Musk, who presented this innovative idea back in 2013 and subsequently made it available to the scientific community as an open development concept.
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In addition to the capsules, the tunnel system is also an essential component for realizing the Hyperloop. For this reason, Elon Musk founded his own company, The Boring Company, which specializes in researching innovative tunnel boring technologies for the Hyperloop.
Organized by Musk and his company, the Not-A-Boring-Competition, an international competition for student and hobby teams, took place in the fall of 2021.
40 students from ETH Zurich, from mechanical/civil engineering, electrical engineering and various business-related fields, developed a concept for an innovative tunnel boring system: Swissloop Tunneling. With this, they prevailed against around 400 other applicants worldwide and qualified as one of 12 finalists for the competition finals in Las Vegas, USA.
To ensure that the valuable equipment was delivered to the competition site on time, the logistics experts from Gebrüder Weiss Switzerland supported the team. Loaded in a 40-foot overseas container, the materials started their journey on July 16 and arrived in Las Vegas on time on September 6. On site, the colleagues from Gebrüder Weiss USA took over the last transport miles to the desert metropolis Las Vegas.
Innovations for the mobility of the future
Along with another competition team from Germany, the ETH team had qualified for the final round from a group of twelve finalists. In the end, the ETH team was able to celebrate two successes in Las Vegas, as in addition to second place, the team also received the Innovation Award.
Even after the competition, the technology developed by the students will remain in use, will be further developed and shall become scalable in order to be applicable in a variety of industries.
“Innovation and investment in the future of mobility are so critical. The Hyperloop competition was an ideal opportunity for Gebrüder Weiss to put our company values into action. This includes ensuring the mobility of tomorrow. We have a group of extraordinary students on our team and we are exceedingly proud of their success in the category of innovation,” said Lothar Thoma, Managing Director Air & Sea at Gebrüder Weiss. “We remain committed to improving not only the logistics industry through our use of sustainable energy and materials but also by pursuing ways to reinvent the future of mobility, no matter if in the air, on the water, above or under the earth’s surface,” he added.
