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 1st place in this rigorous IShow competition.
In one short year (since winning the $5,000 award at the 1st 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 1st 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.