Feb 02, 2016 09:33 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will get the chance to help develop the future of public transportation: SpaceX's Hyperloop.

The Hyperloop aims to transport people in long metal tubes at speeds hundreds of miles per hour. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk opened the design of the pods that would transport on the Hyperloop to a competition involving 22 university teams and one non-university team, Fortune reported.

The MIT team will now get to see their pod design tried out on SpaceX's Hyperloop test track at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. On its website, SpaceX indicated that would take place this summer.

"MIT has been involved in so many technological breakthroughs in the past century," Philippe Kirschen, a master's student in aeronautics and astronautics and MIT's team captain, said in a news release. "It just makes sense we would help advance what might be the future of transportation."

Musk started promoting the idea of the Hyperloop in 2013 and held a yearlong competition for the pod design. The multibillionaire hopes to revolutionize public transportation, especially for commuters within and between cities. Musk stated at the Hyperloop would be able to get people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes, for example.

The MIT team was announced the winner of the Hyperloop pod design at Texas A&M University's Design Weekend, though Musk made a surprise appearance to get everyone excited and offer advice, Fortune noted.

"I think the work you guys are doing is going to blow people's minds," he said. "You want to do a lot of dry runs with your pod.

"Test it out very thoroughly, as close to the competition conditions as possible."

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