Paradigm Hyperloop is a team of students from Memorial University of Newfoundland, College of the North Atlantic, and Northeastern University of Boston that has been planning, designing, and developing a hyperloop pod, which is a conceptual fifth mode of transportation that involves levitating train-like vehicles that travel through low pressure vacuum tubes. The team has been at the project for two years!
J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) is proud to sponsor the innovative work that the Paradigm Hyperloop team is doing.
The global SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition is put on by SpaceX for students to get involved and build hyperloop test vehicles. There are three academic competition, all independent of the other. These competitions allow engineering students across the world the means to see who can push the Hyperloop concept closer to reality by designing, building, and testing their own prototype; not to mention recognition on an international level.
Not only is the Paradigm Hyperloop team the only Canadian team to make it to the second competition, they were placed in the top 24 and advanced directly to the finals without having to conduct further technical assessment. The competition took place in Hawthorne, California at the SpaceX Headquarters between August 25th and 27th. The Paradigm Hyperloop team was incredibly successful in this round, finishing second in the world and first in North America!
“The team was incredibly successful this past week and I am so proud of everyone who is a part of it.” says Adam Keating, Project Lead for Paradigm Hyperloop.
“We are the first and only air bearing pod to successfully complete a High Speed Vacuum run in the Hyperloop Test track. We reached 101km/h with the largest and heaviest pod in the competition, weighing in at 1,800lbs and 20ft in length. Many other teams chose to pursue Maglev or wheel systems, Paradigm however chose to stick to the original path and prove the original concept was a viable premise.” adds Mark Comeau, Manufacturing Lead.
Competition three details are not finalized yet but it is expected to be similar format to competition two. As such, the Paradigm Hyperloop team is well-positioned to make a finals appearance once again given their successes in the first two competitions!
Want to learn more about the Paradigm Hyperloop Team? Visit their Facebook and LinkedIn page.
In a victory for Norpac — and potential blow to local newspapers — the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Tuesday that it will start imposing preliminary antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian paper producers. The move comes in response to a petition filed in August in which the Longview papermaker alleged that Canadian paper manufacturers hold an unfair advantage over domestic producers. Norpac claimed that Canadian paper companies benefit from 65 different subsidies that add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. The federal and provincial subsidies include government grants, tax breaks, subsidized loans, raw materials at below-market costs and cheap subsidized electricity, according to Norpac. A Commerce investigation found that Canadian uncoated groundwood paper — the same product used to print newspapers — was subsidized by an average of 6.53 percent, Norpac said Tuesday. Click Read More below for additional information.
While the merger of Domtar and Paper Excellence has been approved by the Competition Bureau of Canada, part of the approval means the Kamloops pulp mill must be sold to a third party. On May 11, 2021, Paper Excellence and Domtar, based on Montreal and Fort Mill, S.C., entered reached an agreement for Richmond-based Paper Excellence to purchase Domtar for $55.50 per share, a deal worth about $3 billion in United States currency. The merger agreement had a provision that limited the obligation to divest assets to no greater than 410,000 dried metric tons of softwood kraft pulp. The Domtar pulp mill in kamloops has 408,000 tons of production and is the company’s only kraft pulp mill in B.C. that is part of the deal. The Competition Bureau of Canada has concluded that the merger would likely lessen competition substantially for the purchase of wood fibre — a key input in the manufacture of pulp — from the Thompson/Okanagan region.
Seven Domtar colleagues joined nearly 90 other pulp and paper workers from across the United States in Washington, D.C. in February to educate elected officials and advocate for our industry. The employees took part in a fly-in sponsored by the Pulp & Paperworkers’ Resource Council (PPRC), a grassroots organization of hourly employees in the forest products industry. The PPRC brings pulp and paper workers to the capital annually to speak with members of Congress and administrative officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Office of Management and Budget, and other government agencies on issues affecting American manufacturing jobs in the industry. This year, the group made more than 550 visits with members of Congress and administrative officials to discuss the effects of legislative and regulatory decisions on the environment and on people who make their living in forest products manufacturing. These pulp and paper workers represented 57 mills in 22 states.