Romanian Denis Tudor, a student from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, is determined to contribute to the future of technology. He is currently working on project Hyperloop, a conceptual, high-speed transportation system that consists of passenger and cargo pods being propelled at up to 1,200 km/h in a low-pressure tube.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is CEO and founder of SpaceX, and CEO of Tesla Motors, initially proposed the concept.

As the groundbreaking idea comes with a series of challenges, SpaceX organized an open competition, geared towards university students and independent engineering teams, to design and build the best Hyperloop pod. The young Romanian also participated in the contest, and joined one of the finalist teams – rLoop.

rLoop is a non-profit, open source, online think tank that consists of more than 140 members from 14 countries. Some of its members are NASA engineers who work on this project in their spare time. The team has reached the final stage of the competition, being declared the best non-student team. It competes with teams from the best US universities, such as MIT.

The teams’ ideas come to life thanks to sponsors who are impressed with their enthusiasm. That’s how Denis Tudor’s summer trip to Silicon Valley was also financed, reports local Digi24. The Romanian spent the summer there, working on the prototype with which the team will participate in the final.

The competition final will take place in January next year. The prize hasn't been announced, but the winning team may get the chance to develop its project and make it real.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: rloopteam on Facebook)