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The hyperloop, Elon Musk\\u2019s futuristic, tube-based \\u201cfifth mode of transportation\\u201d has stoked imaginations unlike any recent transportation technology except for maybe self driving cars.

Lots has been said about it\\u2014Musk called it a \\u201ccross between a Concord, a railgun, and an air hockey table,\\u201d while the media has latched on to the promised speeds of more than 700 mph and travel times between San Francisco and Los Angeles of 35 minutes.

But much of the promise of the hyperloop still remains theoretical. That changed in a small way last weekend, when SpaceX hosted the first part of its \\u201cHyperloop Pod Design Challenge,\\u201d a contest that asks 180 university teams to design the capsules that will actually go inside the hyperloop. In June, 22 of the teams will test their pods in a track being built by SpaceX. I traveled to Texas A&M University to meet the teams, meet the companies actually building the hyperloop, and to separate out the hype from what\\u2019s actually happening.

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