TE CONNECTIVITY X RLOOP X ELON MUSK

Revolutionizing Transportation with the Team of Tomorrow 

In June 2015, the engineering community was challenged by Elon Musk to invent prototype pods for the future of transportation – The Hyperloop. From over 1,200 teams that responded, just one, the rLoop team, was virtually crowdsourced, becoming the only non-university team to advance to the final round of the competition and receive a prestigious Design Innovation.  

As the main title sponsor, TE dedicated space in its Silicon Valley labs for the team to build the prototype, provided engineering support through TE volunteered advisors and donated TE's vast line of connectors and sensors.  TE showcased the partnership as a company who can support entrepreneurs as they develop the next-gen transportation system.  We produced our first webisode documentary following the team from its initial build stage to the competition, as well as a "how it works" video on the hyperloop technology.  We drew insights from how the team worked and communicated (on Slack) and even hosted an online contest to name the prototype pod.  In the lead up to and day of the competition, technology influencer Linus Tech Tips did a Facebook Live garnering 47,000 live views and a post-competition YouTube video that had over 735,000 views with a watch time over 3.5 million minutes.  TE and rLoop were covered in trade publications and major news outlets including USA Today and Wired.