Beantown Throwdown 2019 - DifferenceMakerDifferenceMaker

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.

Nicholas Draper and Michelle Mailloux from team Ambulatory Innovations, pitch their product “C.A.T. Mat” at Beantown Throwdown in Boston, MA.

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!

Team Ambulatory Innovations holding their winning certificate. Katie Muse (left), Michelle Mailloux (middle), Nicholas Draper (middle), and Tyler Clifton (right).

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.

Olivia Reposa (left) and Michael Digan (right), founders of VotED.

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

Read about the Beantown Throwdown press release here.