The 2017 $50K Idea Challenge is quickly approaching! Make sure to attend the both the Preliminary Pitch Off and the Idea Challenge and cheer on your peers. Congratulations to all these hardworking teams that have made it to the semi-finalist round:

1. Artemis Child Safety Seat: Joshua Kraunelis, Naveen Ravi, Ryan Fitzpatrick
2. Breezy: Anne Faber
3. CareBit: Michael Shorey, Vishwasini Vageesh, Daniel Quigley, Maria Mara
4. Credit Cash: Sary Nhet
5. Cyborg: Jishnu Menon Asokakumar, Ram Das, Adam Ferguson, ChandraSekhar Kolli, Dhiren Rathod
6. DigiBank: Cullin Lam, Emily Seto, Kody Thach, Daniel Uk, Kevin Hoan, Siven Hang, Bunchhieng Soth
7. Disaster Guard: Dave Machado, Darrien Glasser
8. DreamSteam: Michael Kierman
9. Get Girls Going Inc: Nana Younge, Queenly Amankwah
10. Hight Scanner: Dean Little, Giovanna Pereira, Eryka Murphy, Pranim Magar, Sim Dy, John Kilgo
11. InstaBlood: Rohan Girase, Sameer Khan, Apruv Mager, Omkar Salunke
12. InstaFreeze: Lucas Kessler
13. IVC Clot Filter: Alexander Anthony
14. LoreBooks: Alan Foster, Hannah St. George
15. Mountain Bike Hazard Training: Anirban Mookherjee, John Cavalieri, Nicholas Conlon
16. Open Source Bioprinting with Curriculum: Stephanie Stroll, Siddhant Iyer, Venkatesh Manikantan, Christianto Putra, Balaji Sathyamoorthy, Kreg Kaminski
17. Operation250: Danielle Thibodeau, Jaime Keenan, Jonas Pierribia, Nicolette Sam Clemente, Tyler Cote
18. Project Starfish: Travis Kessler, Christopher Johnson, Gregory Dorian, Maxwell Roy, Roma Aurora
19. Qbell: Gao Gao, Jeremy Arzuaga, Renee Vigneault, Steph Wilson
20. Safe Guard: Esther Mawhinney, Olivia Musialowski, Jack Naman, Narasimha Reddy
21. Sensor Platform for Drone Search and Rescue: Kyle Stuart, Vinh Pham, Yomar Salazar, Austin Stevens
22. Share the Sound: Chanelle Cruz, Denise Brito, Martha Robertson, Tyler McMillan, Andrew Schuster
23. Smart Masks: Shaun Sichoumphonh, Charles Tran, Brian Horman, George Kubai
24. Spread the Love: Autumn Sacramone, Julie Bornstein
25. Stranger Eat In: Hung Nguyen, Tan Huynh, Thanh Hoang
26. Textrade: Christopher Tribou, Daniel Santos, Frank Kamayou, Brittany Morris
27. UML Green Roofs: Kierra Walsh, Meagan Timmins, Mike Rivers, Rachel Papazian
28. Uneefy: Yaovi Ayeh
29. UTEC Mattress Recycling: Gerry Casaletto
30. Value Investing: Nathaniel Friedman

Our last workshop of the 2017 series, Delivering Your Rocket Pitch, was held this past Wednesday, March 1st from 5:30-7:30p.m. in Lydon Library, Room 110 on North Campus. Holly Butler, Director of the DifferenceMaker Program, introduced Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor Entrepreneurship & Economic Developement, as the guest speaker for the evening. While students enjoyed the potato bar, Professor Tello lead student through exercises on how to deliver their Rocket Pitch. After demonstrating a sample rocket pitch, students were given a chance to deliver their own, as well as asking any more questions on how to improve their DifferenceMaker projects!

Thank you Professor Steven Tello for attending the workshop!

And don’t forget to attend the $50K Idea Challenge this Spring to hear your fellow students’ DifferenceMaker Projects!