On Wednesday, April 3, DifferenceMaker held its 12th Annual 2024 Preliminary Pitch-Off at O’Leary Library on South Campus. This year, 25 student teams got the opportunity to pitch their creative, innovative ideas to a panel of guest judges. Overall, 19 judges were a part of this event. At the end of the event, ten finalist student teams were announced and will be competing on April 10 at the 12th Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge for a chance to win a portion of $50,000.

Congratulations to the ten finalist teams!

BeanHub: AI-powered fully automated order-taking software for coffee chains. 

EduX: A degree scheduling explorer using AI, unifying higher education in the United States designed for high school and university students.

EV Guardian: A device to provide advanced safety in EV vehicles to help prevent EV fires.

Next Gen Testing: An apparatus designed to enhance the concentration of impurities in test media. 

RAVI: A seeing-eye robot for the visually impaired with the intent of making a more affordable and convenient alternative to seeing eye dogs. 

Sober Solutions: An app that will assist drug users in recovery, avoiding relapses, and beating addiction.

Socket Tech: Creating and maintaining open source software and hardware, focusing on multi-device infrastructure.

SparkCell Technologies: A company solving the issue of affordable and scalable elemental detection. 

ZENYAI: AI sound software that guides users to emotional well-being through personalized AI coaching.

Zipper Buddy: An adaptation solution to clothing in place of a zipper for people facing dressing challenges due to mobility constraints.

Lastly, we would like to thank Joe Hartman, Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic & Student Affairs for kicking-off the event and for announcing the ten winners.

Don’t forget to stop by the 2024 $50k Idea Challenge on April 10th from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m. in University Crossing, Moloney Hall, Room 260 to see the finalist student teams pitch their ideas! Also, vote for your favorite team(s) with our DifferenceMaker Dollars at the event. The team that had the most DifferenceMaker Dollars would be awarded the $500 Fan Favorite Award.

Register for the Idea Challenge: https://www.uml.edu/differencemaker/forms/differencemaker-event-registration.aspx

Watch the Preliminary Pitch-off 2024 video on YouTube, here!