Location: The Vaults (Events Room)

Moderated by Conall Laverty, Founder of Wia, Akhil will talk about the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition & the future of transportation.

Akhil Voorakkara, Head of Electronics and Control Systems for Éirloop

Representing Ireland in Elon Musk’s 2018 Hyperloop Challenge, Akhil headed a team of engineers building an electric pod that could travel over 500km/h. Working to create a viable and efficient solution for terrestrial travel, Akhil and his team were one of only 5 teams invited to race at SpaceX headquarters in California. An Electronic & Computer Engineering student by trade, Akhil managed the engineering team, but also personally built, programmed, and perfected the throttle subsystem which was responsible for getting two electric motors on the pod to reach peak rpm quickly and safely. In addition to all the above, and in true startup fashion, Akhil also served as Marketing Director, pitching to and liaising with many of Éirloops biggest sponsors.

About Éirloop & The Hyperloop Challenge

SpaceX announced the Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2015. The competition’s goal is to support the development of functional prototypes and encourage innovation by challenging teams to design and build the best high-speed Pod for sustainable (& fast!) transportation. Hyperloop will allow for transportation at nearly the speed of sound. At a top speed of 1260km/h, passengers will be able to travel from Dublin to Galway city in only 11 minutes! Team Éirloop consists of 50 undergraduates and postgraduates from several colleges and universities around Dublin. Ultimately, they built a pod that accelerated at almost 1G to complete the fastest ever external subtrack run in the history of the competition, for which they were honored with an Innovation award.

Schedule:

• 12.30 - 12.40 : Intro to Éirloop and the Hyperloop Challenge
• 12.40 - 13.20 : Moderated Chat with Conall on the future of transportation
• 13.20 - 13.30 : Q&A