Our work on Pod 4 began back in September 2018, and spanned all the way up to the Hyperloop Pod Competition IV. In
March, after 5 months of hard work on our new pod design and systems we were notified that we would be heading to the
final round of the 2019 Hyperloop Pod competition along with 18 other teams from around the world. On April 17th we held
our Pod 4 reveal in the Memorial Union great hall and were able to showcase all of our efforts so far from each subteam,
and give a first look at the new pod to all our sponsors and supporters who joined us.
Then, in July 2019 the team
traveled to California to compete in the Pod IV competition. Our team arrived early in the week and worked incredibly
hard for all of testing week-- pulling all-nighters and checking off the testing week requirements one by one. We ran
into a couple of setbacks and after spending some time trying to get a couple more requirements approved we simply ran
out of time to have the SpaceX advisors approve them. While it was disappointing, we came closer than ever before to
having a run in the tube, and are incredibly proud of all the hard work the entire team put in over the year and all of
the success we had. The next day at the Competition itself we were chosen to give a presentation to attendees,
participated in Q&A with Elon Musk, and had a great time enjoying the competition and watching four other great teams from
around the globe test out their designs, and ultimately set a new record for the Hyperloop technology.