Nov 21, 2016 05:01 AM EST By Jane Reed, UniversityHerald Reporter

When Elon Musk sent out a challenge to the world to create a much more affordable and faster alternative than taking a plain or a train, thousands of students and university researchers answered.

After the design round, the Hyperloop competition is going to welcome the building of the pod next year, January 2017. There are colleges and university teams working on levitation, magnetism and brake systems that would enable a pod to reach the speed of sound.

Hylerloop is described to be a unique vision in order to achieve the future of transportation, cites Financial Express. At first it was just a dream but later on materialized after Elon Musk decided to call upon the world's great minds to get him from London to Edinburgh in just thirty minutes or less. This concept transpired in 2013. Now, teams are moving forward with unique designs and prototypes that is described to be affordable, light and technologically advanced.

As students, teams and researchers are busy building their pods for testing and retesting, Hyperloop is looking at the possibility of building the world's first Hyperloop in Dubai. Called Hyperloop One, in a recent promo video, SpaceX and Elon Musks' team teases that one can get from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in less than 20 minutes.

The future is coming closer and in 2020, people may soon see the need for pod transportation outside of trains and airplanes. While these teams are busy building pods, there are many who are already envisioning the delivery of the pods. Some picture an easy access call system much like Uber. Tap the app on the phone and a few minutes later, a pod docks. The passengers are then fed into a vacuum sealed tube. It may not be obvious for the passenger inside, but the whole system will be traveling in speeds of up to or over 700 mph.

For now, every high school, university and college engineering teams are busy preparing for January 2017 where Elon Musk's SpaceX will hold tests for the Hyperloop pods in California.

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit