Penn Hyperloop becomes official University student organization following year of negotiations

Penn Hyperloop, a student team focused on developing reusable tunnel-boring machines, became officially affiliated with the University following a year of negotiations.

Since its inception last year, Penn Hyperloop has been seeking official recognition from the School of Engineering and Applied Science as an official student organization. The team is currently holding a $135,000 fundraising drive to design and build a micro-tunnel boring machine for the Not-a-Boring Competition, which will be held in Bastrop, Texas in March 2025.

The group was established last year by 2024 College and Engineering graduate Rishu Mohanka. Mohanka said he founded Penn Hyperloop with the aim of creating an environment at Penn that mimics the fast-paced style of companies such as SpaceX, where he interned for a summer.

“Coming back for my senior year, I realized that Penn Engineering, which is great in the classroom, is missing the supplementary application,” Mohanka said. “I started [Penn Hyperloop] because it helped close the circle on Penn Engineering education. That way, we can have Penn engineers be the best engineers in the entire world and be ready to go, to hit the ground running.”

1997 College and Wharton graduate Elon Musk founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company, to create a network of underground tunnels that could solve traffic and enable rapid point-to-point transportation. Hyperloop is a project within the Boring Company that looks to create an ultra-high-speed public transportation system with autonomous electric pods that carry passengers at over 600 miles per hour. 

The company holds its annual Not-a-Boring Competition inviting teams to design, build, and race their own tunneling machines. Last year, Penn Hyperloop made it through two rounds of technical reviews and competed in the final event in Bastrop. The team built a fully functioning tunnel boring machine with a small team of four engineers and no official funding from or affiliation with Penn.

This year, Penn Hyperloop is led by Wharton and Engineering senior Gabriel Zhang and plans to dig a 30-meter tunnel with a half-meter diameter. The project would require $135,000 to execute, necessitating University affiliation due to the scale of the project.

“We’re proud of being Penn students. We want to proudly represent Penn at competitions and win competitions under a Penn affiliation,” Zhang said.

Andrea Mitchell University Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at the Engineering School Robert Ghrist told The Daily Pennsylvanian that he was happy to be able to recognize Penn Hyperloop as an official Engineering School student club.

“Hyperloop works in a direction that I think is unique among student organizations,” Ghrist said. “I think that that uniqueness is probably why there’s been some difficulties along the way.”

Last year, the project was funded primarily through venture capitals that backed many of Musk’s other companies, as well as sponsors such as Red Bull. The team hopes to build stronger and new relationships with Penn alumni and venture capitalists to fundraise for this year’s project. 

Wharton School graduate student Ilia Kozhelskii has been distributing emails to alumni and to potential venture capital firms that could be interested in sponsoring Penn Hyperloop and looking for ways to cut down costs, which includes continuing relationships with parts manufacturers from last year. 

“It’s not only about procuring the parts, finding a space to build our boring machine and put it all together, as well as to transport it to Texas when the time comes,” Kozhelskii said. “We can’t start buying parts and actually collecting the funds that were promised to us until we are established as an official student organization at Penn.”

With the organization approved as an official Engineering School student club, Penn Hyperloop is in the process of setting up a Penn-managed bank account that would provide it with a formal financial structure. However, the group is still waiting to receive a dedicated space and is currently in conversation with the University to receive physical space to build its tunnel boring machine at Pennovation Works.

“Our team celebrates this important milestone, and we are grateful to the faculty and the administration involved in the process,” Kozhelskii said. “However, this recognition does not come with any promises concerning physical space or funding from the University. Overcoming these challenges will require ongoing conversations that will not be simple.”

Engineering junior Zeno Dancanet, who is in his second year with Penn Hyperloop, said that he prioritized becoming affiliated this semester and noted the disconnect between the team’s speed of operations and the University’s processes. 

“Hyperloop is a fast-paced club. We’re a small team of people who get things done fast and efficiently,” Dancanet said. “We understand that the University requires a lot of steps and communication to make things happen, so we [were] trying to be as patient as possible.”

Dancanet believes that the hesitancy to approve Penn Hyperloop had to do with the lack of physical space — which has been an issue for other students groups within the Engineering School — and the amount of funding and resources it needed. He also noted the risk the University takes when officially recognizing the organization. However, he believed that student support through clubs is to help students pursue their interests.

“Clubs are supposed to be here for students to mitigate startup costs when they want to start something new. They’re supposed to support students and make it easier on us by removing blockers,” Dancanet said.

Ghrist expressed similar thoughts, saying he was “not entirely happy with the process as it is.” 

“I think this situation with Hyperloop has brought up a couple of things that are worth fixing," he said. "This is going to be high on my priority list is having a process that’s a little more even and transparent."