European Hyperloop Week

European Hyperloop Week
Nickname	EHW, Hyperloop Week
Status	Active
Genre	Hyperloop, Technology, Innovation, Research, Competition
Frequency	Annual
Location(s)	Varies
Country	Netherlands, Scotland, Spain or Switzerland
Years active	4+ years
Most recent	Zurich 2024
Previous event	Edinburgh 2023
Next event	Groningen 2025
Participants	~450
Attendance	~1100-1500 (2022)
Activity	Competitions, Conferences, Workshops, Exhibitions
Organized by	Delft Hyperloop, HYPED, Hyperloop UPV and Swissloop
Website	European Hyperloop Week

The European Hyperloop Week (EHW) is the largest annual hyperloop-centered community event in the world dedicated to the development and innovation of hyperloop technology. The event features a combination of activities, including competitions, conferences, workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions and social gatherings. It aims to foster collaboration between students, academia, industry, and governments to accelerate the advancement of hyperloop systems and its full-scale implementation.^[1]

Following the cancellation of SpaceX's Hyperloop pod competition in 2020, teams around the world were eager to continue innovating and competing but lacked a platform to showcase their work. In response, four European student teams—Delft Hyperloop, HYPED, Hyperloop UPV, and Swissloop—joined forces to create their own competition: the European Hyperloop Week (EHW). EHW was established to provide a platform for the hyperloop community to come together to compete, innovate, network, and share knowledge.^[2]

The event has grown in prominence and participation since its inception, attracting student teams, industry experts, and companies from around the world. The spirit of the event is described by their slogan: Fostering Innovation Through Collaboration.^[3]

Overview of European Hyperloop Week Editions

Edition	Year	Host Country	City	Date	Winner	Main partner(s)
1st	2021	Spain	Valencia and Cheste	July 19–25, 2021	Swissloop	Universitat Politècnica de València and Circuit Ricardo Tormo[4][5][6][7][8]
2nd	2022	Netherlands	Delft and Hilversum	July 18–24, 2022	Delft Hyperloop	TU Delft and Voestalpine[9][10]
3rd	2023	Scotland	Edinburgh	July 17–23, 2023	Swissloop	University of Edinburgh[11][12][13][14][15][16]
4th	2024	Switzerland	Zurich and Dübendorf	July 15–21, 2024	Hyperloop UPV	ETH Zurich and Swiss Innovation Park Zurich[17][18][19]
5th	2025	Netherlands	Groningen and Veendam	July 14–20, 2025	Delft Hyperloop	Hardt Hyperloop and European Hyperloop Center[20][21][22]

EHW hosts a series of presentations, panel discussions, and workshops led by students, industry experts, researchers, and academics. These sessions cover a wide range of topics related to hyperloop technology, infrastructure, regulation, and sustainability. They form a platform for open-source research and networking.

One of the main attractions of EHW is the hyperloop pod competition, where student teams from universities globally design, build, and test their hyperloop pods. These competitions include three main categories as of 2024: Complete System Demonstration, Promising Subsystem Demonstration and Research Submission. The goal is to push the boundaries of current hyperloop technology and full-scale implementation, and inspire the next generation of engineers and innovators.^[23]

Student teams are evaluated by a technical jury consisting of industry experts, academics and former student team members.

Teams participate in various technical and strategic categories, including:

• Overall System Award
• Levitation
• Propulsion
• Braking
• Complete Pod Demonstration
• Scalability and Innovation
• Communications and Public Engagement

The following table summarizes the top 3 teams in the Overall System category of the European Hyperloop Week from 2021 to 2025:

The event serves on one hand as a networking hub for students, professionals and companies. It offers participants the chance to connect with potential employers, partners, and investors. On the other hand, the platform generates awareness about the hyperloop concept amongst the general public. This networking aspect is crucial for fostering collaborations and driving future projects in the hyperloop industry and in adjacent industries such as railway, electronics, pneumatics and other fields of engineering.

EHW includes exhibitions where companies and organizations involved in the hyperloop ecosystem showcase their latest technologies, products, and services. These exhibitions provide a glimpse into the cutting-edge advancements and innovations in the field.^[24]

The European Hyperloop Week hosts the largest knowledge hub of hyperloop-related research papers, and annually collects and publishes student team submissions for open-source access on their website. They have also organized and promoted online seminars on hyperloop-related topics.^[25]

European Hyperloop Week is coordinated jointly by four founding university teams: Delft Hyperloop (Netherlands), Hyperloop UPV (Spain), Swissloop (Switzerland), and HYPED (United Kingdom). These teams share responsibility for the event's strategic planning, governance, and execution, regardless of the host location, ensuring a truly collaborative and international approach.

The organizational structure also includes members from other participating student teams, fostering continuity, innovation, and diversity within the volunteer-led initiative. While the legal foundation representing the event is based in Zurich, Switzerland—serving administrative and compliance functions—operational leadership remains distributed equally among the founding teams.

The event is funded and supported through sponsorships, institutional partnerships, and contributions from the participating teams.^[26]

Since its launch in 2021, the European Hyperloop Week has become one of the leading student-led mobility competitions in Europe. It has contributed to the development of early-stage hyperloop technologies, talent development, and academic-industry collaboration.

More than 1,000 engineering, business, and design students from over 30 countries have participated in the event since its inception, with top technical universities such as Delft University of Technology, ETH Zurich, Universitat Politècnica de València, and the University of Edinburgh consistently represented.

The event has been hosted in major European innovation hubs, including:

• Valencia, Spain (2021)
• Delft and Hilversum, Netherlands (2022)
• Edinburgh, United Kingdom (2023)
• Zurich and Dübendorf, Switzerland (2024)
• Groningen and Veendam, Netherlands (2025)

The rotating host model has allowed the event to engage diverse academic ecosystems and municipal stakeholders across Europe.

The competition has also attracted significant support from sponsors and industry and institutional stakeholders. These sponsors contribute through financial backing, technical mentorship, jury participation, and hosting site visits or demonstrations. The visibility of EHW has also helped strengthen European collaboration around hyperloop standardization and infrastructure strategy.

• Hyperloop pod competition