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A shop room with a drop ceiling, a blue air line running along the top of the walls, a red hose reel on a yellow bracket, a window with blinds, a grey filing cabinet, a stepladder and the top of an air compressor

Hyperloop teamManufacturing Team LeadDrawing 43 of 43

Texas Guadaloop

Texas Guadaloop is a student hyperloop team at UT Austin. I led its manufacturing team of 11 in 2023. I also designed a custom track for the team and manufactured six feet of it for testing.

Sheet 02 of 06/The team

A student hyperloop team

A hyperloop is a proposed way to move people or cargo in a pod that travels through a low-pressure tube. Texas Guadaloop is a student team at UT Austin working on one, and I was on it in two roles, manufacturing team lead and track design and manufacturing engineer.

A long white capsule-shaped pod with a blue G logo and the word Guadaloop on its side, resting on a wooden pallet with casters in a hallway next to a glass-walled room
PL 02A Guadaloop pod on a wooden cart, with the team logo and a row of logos along its white shell.

Sheet 03 of 06/Team lead

Leading manufacturing

From May to December 2023 I led the manufacturing team, 11 members in all. Our job was to help the rest of the members get ready for manufacturing season in their own subsystems.

We had three projects going. Restore Pickle Labs was about restoring the team's air tool systems and building new ones. The other two were producing Kevlar and fiberglass composite shells, and building a custom machined and welded trailer for the hyperloop.

I also taught 4 Guada Learn workshops for the team, on MIG welding, machining, operational safety, and composites manufacturing.

Sheet 04 of 06/Shop

The team's shop

These pictures are the shop room with its air lines in, from January and February 2024. A blue line runs along the top of the walls, with drops coming down to fittings, a hose reel on one wall and the compressor in the corner.

A room corner with a red hose reel high on the wall, a blue air line dropping to a fitting, a coiled yellow hose, a black upright air compressor and a window with blinds
PL 03The corner with the hose reel and the compressor. A blue drop comes down the wall to a fitting, and a coiled yellow hose hangs from there down to the compressor.
A blue air line running along the top of a wall and dropping down to a fitting, next to a window and a shelf of tools and safety gear
PL 04Another drop comes off the line at the ceiling and runs down the wall beside the shelves to a fitting.
A blue air line coming down a wall beside a grey electrical conduit and a grey plate with round openings, ending in a metal fitting near the bottom of the wall
PL 05The drop on the far side of the window runs down next to a grey conduit and ends in a fitting low on the wall.
A close view of a blue air line ending in a black plastic wall bracket with a metal sleeve and two black barbed ports
PL 06The end of one blue line, where it meets a black bracket on the wall.
The back of a black hose reel lying on a speckled floor, with a red rubber air hose wound on it and a brass fitting at the centre
PL 07The hose reel on the floor before it went up, with the red hose and the brass fitting at its hub.

Sheet 05 of 06/Track

Six feet of track

As track design and manufacturing engineer, I made the CAD and GD&T drawings for a custom hyperloop track and stress-tested the design. Then I manufactured six feet of it for testing.

Sheet 06 of 06/Next

What's still missing

This page doesn't have pictures of the composite shells, the trailer, or the six feet of track yet. If you were on the team and have photos of any of them, I'd love a copy.