On November 12, 2019, the UMass Lowell innovation community partnered with Johnson and Johnson Innovation to host an event at M2D2 located at the Innovation Hub in downtown Lowell. The event was called – The Promise of the Next Generation of Wearables. RE-VIVE, who won Honorable Mention, a $2,000 award at the 2019 Rist DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge, was chosen to pitch at this exciting event!

Innovations such as the Apple Watch and FitBit, also known as wearable devices, have become one of the trendiest accessories to hit the consumer world. The smart wearable device market is projected to double by 2022.

Steven Tello, Vice Provost for Graduate, Professional and Online Studies, gave welcoming remarks. After the remarks, expert thought leaders in this space, such as Cris De Luca, Global Director of Digital Innovation, and Jeff Champagne, Director of Business Development at MPR Associates, Inc. discussed the true value and definition of “wearables devices” and “smart clothing”.

There were various three minute pitches, presented by startup teams with products related to wearable technology. Alison Michell and Nicholas Lydon, two UMass Lowell seniors studying chemical engineering, pitched their idea for RE-VIVE. RE-VIVE aims to address the opioid epidemic by preventing fatal overdoses. RE-VIVE consists of a wearable auto-injection system to administer Naloxone to those suffering from a drug overdose. This will help decrease the number of fatal overdoses that tragically occur, and hopefully combat the overall epidemic.

There was an expert feedback panel, featuring Stefanie Dhanda, Ibraheem Badejo, and Cris De Luca. Everyone on the panel were Directors from Johnson and Johnson Innovation. After all of the pitches, they voted for their top favorite teams. RE-VIVE came in 2nd place!

Congratulations to RE-VIVE! We’re very proud of their hard work!

On Tuesday, November 19, students from local colleges and universities near the Boston area gathered to the global headquarters of LogMeIn for the largest cross-college pitch off hosted by MIT. Among those schools were students from our district: UMass Lowell and Middlesex Community College!

Representing UMass Lowell was team Ambulatory Innovations, who won Honorable Mention at the 2019 Rist DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge. Michelle Mailloux and Katherine Muise, two graduates in physical therapy in the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, are the founders. Michelle pitched their product, the C.A.T. Mat, at the Beantown Throwdown this Tuesday.

C.A.T. Mat (community ambulation tool mat) is an artificial environment simulation tool for patients going through physical therapy. It will simulate walking outdoors, with tiles that have textures such as sand and rocks, to help patients prepare for community ambulation.

The first place winner of the 2019 Beantown Throwdown was UMass Lowell, team Ambulatory Innovations! They received first place against teams from Harvard University, Boston University, MIT, and more.

They were awarded the following prizes:

Entrepreneur Education

· Admission to an upcoming MITEF Cambridge Start Smart class – (1st + 2nd place teams)

· Launchpad Venture Group is offering guest passes for two (2) entrepreneurs to attend one upcoming catalyst event as observers. These events showcase short pitches from 10-12 startups, with networking with investors afterwards. The two team members will be able to watch the pitches and network afterwards – (1st place team)

· Underscore VC will host an expert-lunch/mentoring-session and offer a final round interview to a team they select for their UFirst Summer Accelerator

· A Legal Lunch with MITEF Legal Sponsors

· Net Positive Agency is offering four (4) one-hour digital marketing consulting sessions – (1st + 2nd place teams)

Startup Tools

· One-year team plan subscription to the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Toolbox; a set of tools and checklists to help founders build a healthy and successful startup – (1st + 2nd place teams)

· Access to Google Cloud Startup Program – Spark Package, which includes 20K in credits via MITEF Cambridge partnership –(1st + 2nd place teams)

Incubator Access

· ACTION Innovation Network will provide one hour consultations exploring the greater Boston/New England incubator network. (1st + 2nd place teams)

Other

· Day passes to the Cambridge Innovation Center

· The Canada prize of travel to Montreal at District 3 Innovation Center for a week, Montreal’s leading innovation hub (1st place winner)

· Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds gift bag

We’re very proud of their hard work and innovative idea!

Representing Middlesex Community College, is team VotEd. Students Michael Dignan, Gillian Inglis, and Olivia Reposa are part of the DifferenceMaker/MCC Partnership. VotEd is a platform that works to give users unbiased knowledge about their rights to vote. They won the DifferenceMaker prize for Significant Social Impact in 2019.

We are so proud of our DifferenceMaker student teams that pitched at Beantown this year!

Read about the Beantown Throwdown press release here.