Congratulations to the 2013 Campus Wide DifferenceMaker team, Nonspec. On Monday, April 28, 2014 they competed against 9 other teams in the ASME IShow at The Newseum in Washington DC. Nonspec was awarded the 1st place prize of $25,000!!! Congratulations to Nonspec on making a difference through their hard work, dedication, innovative product idea and success.

The ASME IShow is meant to inspire students to be product innovators and entrepreneurs. It provides a platform for top collegiate teams to compete for seed funding in order to further the development of their product and business. Teams must display technical creativity and prove that they have a sustainable business model to a judging panel of successful innovators, industry experts, venture capitalists, and intellectual property specialists.

Nonspec produces low cost expandable and adjusting prosthetic limbs for children in developing nations.  Their technology is currently patent pending. Nonspec applied to the ASME IShow in February and became a top ten finalist. Yesterday they achieved 1^st place in this rigorous IShow competition.

In one short year (since winning the $5,000 award at the 1^st Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge on April 15, 2013) Nonspec has achieved the following awards:

• Campus Wide DifferenceMaker Award, $5,000
• 2nd Place at Commencement Pitch, $1,000
• Top 10 College Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine
• IAPD Plastics Application Design Award, $1,000 (but taking PR instead of $)
• Moo Grand Prix Small Business Award, $11,000 plus $1,000 for materials
• NCIIA E-Team Grant Stage 1, $5,000
• Design News Engineer to Watch 2014, Jonathan de Alderete
• ASME top ten for the Innovation Showcase
• AME IShow 1^st Place Award, $25,000

To stay up to date on the DifferenceMaker Program and its creative teams please follow DMs on twitter @Difference_UML and visit www.facebook.com/umldifferencemaker.

The 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge was held on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. The poster reception took place from 5–6 p.m. with the pitch competition & awards from 6–9 p.m. This event was held in the Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, Atrium on North Campus. 42 teams pitched in the Preliminary Pitch-Off Event on April 4^th and the 13 teams who made it through were featured at this 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge.

The evening began with poster presentations by the 13 finalist teams, as well as student teams who participated in the Preliminary Pitch-Off and wanted a chance to win a “Fan Favorite” prize. The 13 finalist teams then presented a series of 5 minute rocket pitches to a panel of 8 alumni judges for a chance to share in $35,000 in prizes. These entrepreneurial UMass student teams competed and shared their ventures and all received a portion of the $35,000 to help further their projects. This event attracted over 135 students, alumni, faculty, staff, community members and entrepreneurs.

We would like to thank all of the judges for helping make this event a great success:

 Final Judges-April 15, 2014

Jim Regan
John Pulichino
Mark Forziati
Jack Wilson
Mike Morin
Don LaTorre
Tricia Keefe
Amy Hoey

We would like to thank our sponsors for helping us make a difference: 

• Digital Credit Union-Corporate Sponsor
• Joseph C. Day Chancellor’s Fund for Institutional Priorities
• Joseph P. Donahue Charitable Foundation
• Mitchell Kertzman Endowed Discretionary Fund
• Francis L. McKone Chancellor’s Discretionary Endowment Fund
• Pernick Chancellor’s Endowed Discretionary Fund
• Spinola Angel Investment Fund for Entrepreneurship
• Jack Wilson Endowed Presidential Entrepreneurship Award Fund

Congratulations to the 2014 DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge $35K Winners!!!

Please visit www.uml.edu/differencemaker to learn more!

DifferenceMaker^TM held its 2014 Preliminary Pitch-Off on Friday April 4^th from 2-6pm. 42 student teams pitched their innovative ideas making this event a great success! These teams were categorized into 6 groups depending on their projects topic. These categories included IT/Software/Apps, Healthcare/Medical Devices/Well-being, Technology/Energy/Environment, Community/Non-profit, Consumer Products and Education Innovations.  These 6 groups each contained 7 team projects that pitched to a panel of 4 judges simultaneously utilizing 6 UMass Lowell rooms. These rooms included DifferenceMaker Central, Lydon Library Quiet Study, Lydon Library Computer Lab, Saab Emerging Technology and Innovation Center Room 245, 345 and 445.

The 24 UMass Lowell Alumni judges that dedicated themselves to this event were:

The Preliminary Pitch-Off event began at 2pm in the Saab Emerging Technology and Innovation Center with registration, networking and food. The event concluded around 6pm with the announcement of the 12 finalists that will be moving on to the 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge being held on Tuesday, April 15^th from 5-9pm (Register here).

Congratulations to the Finalist Teams:

Nerdonyx: Nerdonyx is a place where theory meets application. This team is helping to encourage anyone who wants to be an engineer or scientist to pursue their dream.

S.imulated A.ction T.esting: A gaming option for S.A.T. testing for students who have testing anxiety.

Prevention’s Possible: The mission of this project is to use creative mediums and personal experience to reach today’s youth with the expectation that WE CAN prevent tragic outcomes!

SOS: Support Our Students: This Campus Community Shop at UMass Lowell would be a centrally located resource for students of low-income or those in need of assistance. It would also serve as a resource center for community engagement, for credit service placements and volunteer opportunities in the area.

Chat UML: Chat UML, a non-profit, will reach those in need of emotional help through a dedicated website where participants will chat with a Chat UML volunteer about what ever issue they feel a need to. We hope to assist people before their situation escalates and becomes a crisis.

iHand: The iHand is a concept integrating retinal scanning technology into a full arm, shoulder to fingertips, prosthetic.

BioBubbler:  The BioBubbler is made from indigenous material and does not require chemicals or electricity to use. It is a slow sand filtration system that eliminates bacteria in water by absorption, predation, natural death, and oxygen depletion.

OTTOnomous Technology: OTTOnomous Technology is a novel soltuion for replacing camshsfts in car engines with electro-mechanical actuators.

Treehouse: Treehouse is a website & phone application that connects friends with plans, events, and small businesses nearby.

ZHOOM: ZHOOM is a mobile application that improves the dining experience and service in restaurants. The features of ZHOOM include an online menu, mobile ordering functionality and payment system and customer reviews.

Fresh Beets: Fresh Beets is a food truck and music venue that unites three discrete areas that the Greater Lowell community values highly into one vehicle of change. By combining food, music and education, Fresh Beets will turn any street corner, stake park, festival, or parking lot in Lowell into a total experience which feeds the mind, body and soul.

TutorTrack: TutorTrack is a mobile application that makes it easy for tutors to track, add, and edit their time slots and for students to subscribe a book a time slot.

Termagen®/ TermaGreen: Termagen is our waste heat recovery solutions company that has innovated the heat recovery mechanism known as the organ rankine cycle. We have innovated the design of this machine to make a significant difference in its operations.

• This team was the winner of the 2013 DCU Innovation Contest with their project called Autocredit, a banking application. They have chosen to pitch their other project, TermaGreen in the finals instead of Autocredit.

These 13 teams will be presenting a 5 minute rocket pitch to a panel of alumni judges for a chance to share in $35,000 in prizes and services. In addition, a “fan favorite” prize will be awarded to the team with the best poster. The 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge will take place on Tuesday, April 15^th from 5-9pm in the Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center. If you are interested in attending this event please register.