Around the world, student hyperloop teams are tackling one of engineering’s most ambitious challenges: designing transportation systems capable of moving people and cargo at unprecedented speeds while improving efficiency and sustainability. What makes these teams particularly remarkable is not only their vision, but the breadth of engineering disciplines required to bring that vision to life.
At global hyperloop competitions, students are challenged to bridge the gap between theory and reality. They must solve complex problems involving aerodynamics, structures, thermal management, propulsion, controls, and manufacturing, often under tight timelines and limited budgets. For many teams, simulation serves as the foundation that enables rapid innovation.
Three teams from India are helping lead this effort: Avishkar Hyperloop from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) of Madras, Team Levitate from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), and the loopMIT team from Manipal Institute of Technology. Although each team approaches hyperloop development differently, the teams share a goal: Use engineering innovation and simulation-driven design to transform ambitious ideas into working prototypes.
Avishkar Hyperloop: Building for Real-World Challenges
For team Avishkar Hyperloop, the mission extends far beyond developing a competition vehicle. The team focuses on creating a scalable hyperloop prototype while addressing the practical challenges that a full-scale transportation system may encounter, including levitation failures, vacuum compatibility, passenger safety, and system reliability.
The Avishkar Hyperloop team with their vehicle.
For Shubhankar Kukade, a second-year mechanical engineering student, hyperloop competitions do more than showcase technology. They provide a shared goal that keeps the team aligned, helping students focus their efforts on the systems that matter most while learning how to balance ambitious ideas with real-world engineering and budget constraints.
The Avishkar Hyperloop team used Ansys Maxwell 3D simulation to analyze magnetic flux density vector field and magnitude distribution (left); a finite element analysis (FEA) showing localized magnetic flux density core saturation (right).
Simulation plays a central role throughout team Avishkar’s design process. The team relies heavily on Ansys Mechanical structural finite element analysis software and Ansys Fluent fluid simulation software to evaluate critical systems before manufacturing. Structural analyses help validate major chassis components, support brackets, and emergency braking systems that must withstand significant loads. Meanwhile, fluid dynamics analyses help optimize the pod’s shell geometry for low-pressure operating conditions, minimizing pressure buildup and improving efficiency.
The team also applies simulation to thermal management challenges for battery packs, linear induction motors, electromagnetic suspension systems, cooling channels, and heat exchangers.
“For the thermal subsystem, transient thermal analysis has been really useful, allowing us to study the interaction between heat-generating components and cooling systems, evaluating the amount of phase change materials (PCMs) required for the heat exchanger and estimating theoretical maximum runtime of the pod from a thermal perspective before manufacturing,” says Kukade.
Another capability that the team finds particularly valuable is topology optimization, which helps reduce vehicle weight — a critical factor because it directly affects levitation performance and overall system efficiency.
Avishkar Hyperloop team members working on their design.
Beyond technical performance, the team found that simulation also delivers significant efficiency gains. By validating designs before fabrication, team Avishkar reduces costly redesign cycles and minimizes the need for repeated manufacturing iterations. The team can compare concepts virtually, identify issues earlier, and move forward with greater confidence when making design decisions.
Team Levitate: Turning Research Into Engineering Innovation
Founded in 2024, Team Levitate at VIT Vellore was established with an ambition that extends beyond competition participation. The team aims to develop engineering solutions that reach well beyond hyperloop transportation, contributing innovations that could benefit industrial automation, renewable energy, advanced mobility, and other technology sectors.
Team Levitate Hyperloop at the 2026 Global Hyperloop Competition (GHC).
Led by captain Adarsh Lakshman, Team Levitate views hyperloop as a convergence point for engineering disciplines. The project brings together propulsion systems, thermal management, structures, materials engineering, controls, manufacturing, and power electronics into a single integrated system. He says, “Hyperloop is, in my view, less the destination than the vessel through which advances in numerous engineering disciplines may arrive.”
International competitions have played an important role in shaping the team’s development. But rather than measuring success purely through awards, the team emphasizes technology development, research output, intellectual property generation, and the long-term potential for commercialization. Within just two years of its formation, Team Levitate has earned more than 10 competition awards, developed multiple technologies approaching intellectual property protection, and produced its first viable prototype.
That rapid progress has already carried the young team into the prototyping stage. At GHC 2026, they successfully demonstrated its linear induction motor (LIM) and battery technology and are on track to complete a full pod for demonstration.
Team Levitate Hyperloop designs and simulations clockwise from top left: complete vehicle assembly; explicit dynamics simulation of crumple zone; chassis assembly with electrical and embedded systems; honeycomb-based crumple zone; electromagnetic simulation of a linear induction motor.
Simulation supports nearly every aspect of Team Levitate’s engineering workflow. Because the team designs and manufactures most major subsystems in-house, simulation is deeply integrated across mechanical, electrical, and multidisciplinary engineering efforts. The Ansys Electronics Desktop (AEDT) electronics systems design platform is central to the team’s electromagnetic design workflow, particularly for developing and optimizing the linear propulsion system and its drive components. In the Ansys Workbench simulation integration platform, the team performs structural, thermal, and computational fluid dynamics analyses across the vehicle. Geometry preparation, meshing, and post-processing tools are equally critical, enabling an efficient transition from concept development to validated engineering models.
One of the team’s greatest engineering challenges is converting theoretical concepts into reliable physical systems. Real-world factors, such as manufacturing tolerances, material limitations, thermal effects, and subsystem interactions, can introduce complexities that traditional calculations alone may not capture. The team describes simulation as the bridge between theory and implementation, enabling engineers to test ideas virtually before investing time and resources in fabrication.
A particularly exciting example is the team’s work on bio-inspired technologies, including a cooling system being developed for intellectual property protection and lightweight structural crumple zones designed to improve crash performance. Lakshman explains, “Simulation allowed us to investigate unconventional concepts with confidence before physical validation, greatly accelerating the design process while reducing development risk.”
For Team Levitate, simulation is as much about decision-making as it is about engineering analysis. Under demanding competition schedules, students can rapidly evaluate multiple alternatives, identify weaknesses earlier in the design cycle, and base decisions on quantitative evidence rather than intuition.
loopMIT: Closing the Gap Between Design and Reality
At loopMIT, students are focused on helping to make magnetic levitation transportation systems a practical reality. The team believes that future transportation must be faster, more sustainable, and more efficient than many conventional systems used today.
The loopMIT team celebrates at the 2026 Global Hyperloop Competition (GHC).
For the team lead of loopMIT, Dhairya Berry, one of the most valuable lessons from participating in the Global Hyperloop Competition was discovering how theoretical design concepts can change when confronted with manufacturing realities. As a relatively new team, loopMIT quickly learned that successful engineering requires planning for failures, manufacturing challenges, system breakdowns, and unforeseen real-world constraints.
The experience forced the team to focus not only on achieving theoretical performance targets but on practical concerns, such as stability, weight reduction, levitation consistency, and propulsion effectiveness.
The loopMIT team’s simulations clockwise from top left: a transient 3D electromagnetic simulation of the propulsion system; an electromagnetic transient simulation of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) using the Ansys Maxwell advanced electromagnetic field solver; an equivalent stress analysis result from a finite element analysis (FEA) of the chassis; an equivalent stress FEA of a bell crank mechanism.
The loopMIT team relies on a range of Ansys, part of Synopsys, solutions across its hyperloop vehicle development process. The team uses Fluent and Mechanical software for aerodynamic, structural, and thermal analyses of key components, including the aeroshell, chassis, brakes, and other structural systems. For powertrain and electrical system development, the team uses the Ansys Maxwell 3D advanced electromagnetic field solver and the Ansys Twin Builder simulation-based digital twin platform to model and evaluate the linear induction motor and associated electrical components. These simulations help engineers better understand system performance, validate design decisions, and assess the loads required to achieve reliable propulsion.
The team has also used simulation to tackle some of its most significant technical hurdles. Structural vibration remains a major challenge because multiple subsystems operate in close proximity and can affect overall stability. Simulation enables engineers to test component configurations virtually and identify potential issues before implementation. Electromagnetic analyses similarly help the team address challenges, such as end effects and asymmetric flux generation in propulsion systems. “This helped us understand limits without damaging physical components,” says Dhairya.
Perhaps most importantly, simulation has helped loopMIT maximize limited resources. The team cites manufacturing access and budget constraints as key challenges, making it impractical to build and test every possible design variation. Virtual testing lets students identify the most promising solutions before committing resources to fabrication.
The results have been tangible. The team reports reducing design iterations while achieving a chassis that is approximately 30% stronger than previous versions. On the propulsion side, simulation helped develop a motor design capable of generating significantly higher flux density while improving efficiency through optimized winding patterns. Dhairya says, “We can collaborate on projects with team members and share designs and simulation data with ease. The efficiency is also phenomenal, which allows us to deliver the best results needed for the team in the least amount of time possible.”
More Than a Competition
While each team has unique technical goals and engineering approaches, they all point to a common benefit of hyperloop competitions: preparing students to solve multidisciplinary engineering challenges in the real world.
The unique projects require students to move beyond textbook exercises and work within practical constraints involving manufacturing, budgets, timelines, integration, and performance trade-offs. In the process, they gain experience in systems engineering, collaboration, technical decision-making, and innovation.
For the students behind Avishkar Hyperloop, Team Levitate, and loopMIT, hyperloop is more than a transportation concept. It is an opportunity to develop technologies, build engineering expertise, and collaborate across disciplines while tackling some of the most ambitious challenges in modern mobility. Through simulation-driven innovation, these teams are not only advancing hyperloop technology — they are helping shape the next generation of engineers who will design the transportation systems of tomorrow.
Ready to take your team's designs further? Learn more about how an Ansys Student Team Partnership can give your team access to simulation tools, resources, and support designed to help you innovate with confidence.
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