This past Wednesday, April 25th, our 6th Annual $50,000 Idea Challenge was held in Moloney Hall, University Crossing, from 5-8:30PM. There was a great turnout, with six  teams competing for Fan Favorite, and ten teams battling for a piece of the $50,000. Thank you to everyone who attended, and a special thank you to Chancellor Moloney for speaking and always supporting DifferenceMaker.

The winning teams and their categories include:

Fan Favorite – $1,000

T.A.P

“T.A.P, an acronym for teach-a-pal is a concept to address the insufficiency of exams by introducing and utilizing a peer to peer study solution in hopes of increasing performance.” Bernard Tay, Senior, Marketing & Entrepreneurship; Cassandra Francois, Junior, Art; Hilton Carboo, Junior, Computer Science.

Significant Social Impact – $4,500

ClassRoots

“A peer learning platform that aims to bring classmates together in order to make friends and utilize each other as tools for academic success.” Nicholas Norcross, Junior, Business Information Systems & Kevin Seery, Sophomore, Supply Chain and Operations Management.

Contribution to a Healthier Lifestyle – $4,500

Lead-Ex Filter

“This project aims to develop an effective lead removal device for water distribution system.” Lewis Rowles, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering, & Arsalan Khalid, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

First to Market – $4,500

Mass Heartbeat

“Mass HeartBeat is an organization dedicated to bringing affordable and convenient heart screening services to students directly at their school, camp, or university. Mass HeartBeat uses state-of-the-art ECG technology to screen students for undetected cardiac conditions that could lead to sudden cardiac death if left untreated.” Jack Nealon, Graduate, Law; Shane Lavoie, Graduate, Masters of Business Administration; Pat Cusanelli, Alumni, Medical Device.

Innovative Technology Solution – $4,500

Dexter

“A pre-programed small-footprint robotic arm is able to spray exact doses of pesticide in complex farming environment such as apple, plum, cherry (branched tree).” Thanh Hoang, Senior, EE, & Trung Nguyen, Senior, Mechanical Engineering.

2018 Campus-wide DifferenceMaker – $6,000

Iron Legion

 “Our objective is to develop an autonomous drone network designed to carry out delivery service, search and rescue, and infrastructure security operations.” George Le, Senior, Computer Science, & Peter Maitland, Junior, Homeland Security/Criminal Justice.

Five other teams received Honorable Mentions and a prize of $2,000!

Honorable Mentions- $2,000

SolXtract

“The project deals with the issue of spent coffee grounds getting disposed in landfills without true utilization of what the coffee bean has to offer. It also addresses the energy crisis issue by providing alternative sources of fuel from materials considered to be waste from the past three centuries.” Anikitha Sushma, Graduate, Energy Engineering, & Abhiram Authipudi, Graduate, Energy Engineering.

SASS- Solo Adventurer Safety System

“Providing reliable GPS tracking and communication with a timed checking system to make sure the adventurer is always safe.” Cameron Edmonds, Senior, Electrical UG- Robotics Minor; Matthew Pelland, Sophomore, Computer Science/Math; Jackson Seal, Sophomore, Computer Science/Robotics; Curtis Sargent, Marketing.

ETRALock

“A device that could be attached to any door in order to help people easily and safely access their homes key-free.” Edwin Taveras, Senior, Electrical Engineering; Michael Silva, Senior, Electrical Engineering; & Robinson Arias Gonzalez, Senior, Electrical Engineering.

PlaytList

“The focus of this project is to create an app for people with dietary restrictions whether it be health, cultural or religious find restaurants near them that suit their needs.” Sebastian Pascal, Freshman, Business; Isaac Brown, Graduate, Computer Science; Alana Zheng, Freshman, Business; Joseph Ayoka, Freshman, Computer Science.

Personalized Learning

“This project is focused around utilizing students personality traits and learning styles to match them with the most optimal professor for each of their classes based off of their teaching style.” Daniel Falcone, Junior, Business Administration; Jennifer Lee, Junior, World Languages; KavyaKumar Vallurupalli, Graduate, Computer Science; ManojReddy Dumpa, Graduate, Computer Science.

A huge thank you to all of our judges. We appreciate all your hard work!

• Mary Burns ‘84​, College of FAHSS, Splash Media Group Boston, LLC​
• Cindy Conde ‘87 ‘91​, Francis College of Engineering,​ CEO,​ CondeCo
• Janis Raguin ‘92, ​College of Education, Educator
• Mark Saab, ’81, ’13 (H)​, Francis College of Engineering, CTO, Vention Medical.

Also, a big thank you to our sponsors!

• Circle Health​
• Jim Dandeneau​ ​
• Joseph C. Day Chancellors’ Fund ​
• Digital Federal Credit Union​
• Foley and Lardner, LLP​ ​
• Joseph P. Donahue Charitable Foundation​ ​
• Nancy L. Donahue Endowed Fellowship in Values and Ethics​  ​
• Enterprise Bank​ ​
• Middlesex Community College ​
• Mitchell Kertzman Endowed Discretionary Fund
• Robert J. Manning Endowment Fund (Robert and Donna Manning)​ ​
• Francis L. McKone Chancellor’s Discretionary Endowment Fund​
• Glenn Morgan, Class of 1986, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences​ ​
• Pernick Chancellor’s Endowed Discretionary Fund​ ​
• James Regan, Class of 1988, Manning School of Business​ ​
• Spinola Angel Investment Fund for Entrepreneurship​ ​
• Jack Wilson Endowed Presidential Entrepreneurship Award Fund​

On Wednesday, April 4th at 2:00 P.M., a total of 26 student teams began pitching their ideas to several panels of successful alumni judges. Ten teams would then be chosen as the 2018 Idea Challenge finalists, who will compete for $50,000 on April 25th!

Congratulations to our ten finalist teams!

ClassRoots- Nicholas Norcross, Junior, Business Information Systems & Kevin Seery, Sophomore, Supply Chain and Operations Management. “A peer learning platform that aims to bring classmates together in order to make friends and utilize each other as tools for academic success.”

ETRALock- Edwin Taveras, Senior, Electrical Engineering; Michael Silva, Senior, Electrical Engineering; & Robinson Arias Gonzalez, Senior, Electrical Engineering. “A device that could be attached to any door in order to help people easily and safely access their homes key-free.”

Iron Legion- George Le, Senior, Computer Science, & Peter Maitland, Junior, Homeland Security/Criminal Justice. “Our objective is to develop an autonomous drone network designed to carry out delivery service, search and rescue, and infrastructure security operations.”

Lead-Ex Filter- Lewis Rowles, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering, & Arsalan Khalid, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering. “This project aims to develop an effective lead removal device for water distribution system.”

Mass Heartbeat- Jack Nealon, Graduate, Law; Shane Lavoie, Graduate, Masters of Business Administration; Pat Cusanelli, Alumni, Medical Device. “Mass HeartBeat is an organization dedicated to bringing affordable and convenient heart screening services to students directly at their school, camp, or university. Mass HeartBeat uses state-of-the-art ECG technology to screen students for undetected cardiac conditions that could lead to sudden cardiac death if left untreated.”

Personalized Learning- Daniel Falcone, Junior, Business Administration; Jennifer Lee, Junior, World Languages; KavyaKumar Vallurupalli, Graduate, Computer Science; ManojReddy Dumpa, Graduate, Computer Science. “This project is focused around utilizing students personality traits and learning styles to match them with the most optimal professor for each of their classes based off of their teaching style.”

PETTY: Pesticide spraying robotics arm- Thanh Hoang, Senior, EE, & Trung Nguyen, Senior, Mechanical Engineering. “A pre-programed small-footprint robotic arm is able to spray exact doses of pesticide in complex farming environment such as apple, plum, cherry (branched tree).”

PlaytList- Sebastian Pascal, Freshman, Business; Isaac Brown, Graduate, Computer Science; Alana Zheng, Freshman, Business; Joseph Ayoka, Freshman, Computer Science. “The focus of this project is to create an app for people with dietary restrictions whether it be health, cultural or religious find restaurants near them that suit their needs.”

SASS: Solo Adventurer Safety System- Cameron Edmonds, Senior, Electrical UG- Robotics Minor; Matthew Pelland, Sophomore, Computer Science/Math; Jackson Seal, Sophomore, Computer Science/Robotics; Curtis Sargent, Marketing. “Providing reliable GPS tracking and communication with a timed checking system to make sure the adventurer is always safe.”

SolXtrack- Anikitha Sushma, Graduate, Energy Engineering, & Abhiram Authipudi, Graduate, Energy Engineering. “The project involves the extraction of oil from organic waste to contribute towards reducing energy crisis and for applications in cosmetology.”

Also, a special thank you to our judges:

Lisa Allocca, Greg Chiklis, Cindy Conde, Josh Entner, Steve Geyster, John Grayson, Dan Keefe, Sarah LaLiberte, Brenda Maille, Paul Makris, Susan di Mari, Chris McKenna, Glenn Morgan, John Norden, Mike Rider, Ray Southworth, Andrew Sutherland, and Ira Turner.

Also, a big thank you to our guest speaker Justin Lozier, a former DifferenceMaker, and founder and CEO of TopaCan!

Make sure to come by our $50,000 Idea Challenge on April 25th from 5-8:30 PM in Moloney Hall!

Here are the semi-finalists teams! These teams will move on to the Preliminary Pitch-off for a chance to advance to the final Idea Challenge! A big congratulations to all students that applied. In addition, Please come support these teams from 5-6pm at the Preliminary Pitch-off on April 4th in O’Leary Library!

Blockchain Authenticator- An authenticator built on the blockchain for maximum security. The blockchain is a decentralized internet that everyone has access too so it makes it very difficult to hack into. The purpose of this idea is to stop from people make fakes of their product.

Books should not be a luxury!- An app for all UML students to reach out to fellow students who either want to sell, buy, rent or even borrow (from friends) the books of their curriculum.

Civic Minded Community- A social initiative that aims to combat crime by building a stronger community. We provide a convenient online platform to assist those who want to make a change in their community but do not know where to start.

ClassRoots- A peer learning platform that aims to bring classmates together in order to make friends and utilize each other as tools for academic success.

Community Garden Network- A non-profit organization that focuses on creating community gardens in areas which are deprived of quality nutrient rich foods and resources to become self-sustainable.

Creating an App for People with Dietary Restrictions Looking for Suitable Restaurants- The focus of this project is to create an app for people with dietary restrictions whether it be health, cultural or religious find restaurants near them that suit their needs.

EDUFUND- Social media platform that will connect students in need of college funding with investors, through means of income share agreement.

ETRALock- A device that could be attached to any door in order to help people easily and safely access their homes key-free.

Extraction of Coffee essential oil from spent coffe grounds- The project involves the extraction of oil from organic waste to contribute towards reducing energy crisis and for applications in cosmetology.

H2All- A non-profit organization that promotes awareness for this issue, provides relief for communities without access to clean water, and help create infrastructure in those areas so they can be self-sufficient.

I Am Jack Travis-  Self branding online as a mental health advocate. Main mission is “to be the person who wasn’t there for me.”

Iron Legion- Our objective is to develop an autonomous drone network designed to carry out delivery service, search and rescue, and infrastructure security operations.

Keeping It Human- As an extension for Twitter and Facebook, it utilizes state-of-the art data-mining & analysis methods with computer analytics to determine if the social media account in question is a real person with a small indicator near their personal handle, or one of the millions of bots that are seemingly human in 2018.

Laptop holder for drafting tables with angle adjustment- A product that finally satisfies the need of visual artists when they both draw and paint on tiltable drafting tables.

LasarusPod- An app designed to utilize the preexisting networks of commuters to deliver commodities across campus for minimal cost

Lead-Ex Filter- This project aims to develop an effective lead removal device for water distribution system.

Mass HeartBeat- Mass HeartBeat is an organization dedicated to bringing affordable and convenient heart screening services to students directly at their school, camp, or university. Mass HeartBeat uses state-of-the-art ECG technology to screen students for undetected cardiac conditions that could lead to sudden cardiac death if left untreated.

On-campus Job Searching – Career Hawk- Makes it easier for students to find an on campus job, and helps professors find student assistants.

Opioid-Crisis: Youth Focused Comicbook- The idea is to develop a comicbook targeted at youth between the ages of 12-18 years old to educate and bring awareness to the dangers of opioid use and abuse.

Personalized Learning- This project is focused around utilizing students personality traits and learning styles to match them with the most optimal professor for each of their classes based off of their teaching style.

Pesticide Spraying Robotics Arm- A pre-programed small-footprint robotic arm is able to spray exact doses of pesticide in complex farming environment such as apple, plum, cherry (branched tree).

Pillzio-Have a loved one who needs a better, easier way to manage their medications? Pillzio will help you set up a easy-to-read schedule to help ensure medications are taken at the appropriate times. With Google Assistant, there is no clunky interface to navigate through – simply talk to the voice assistant to get your questions answered!

Project Orange- A phone that’s fixable, yet watertight. A phone that is durable, yet sexy. A phone that fits the new consumer’s needs.

ProjectPACE- UML Center for Terrorism and Security Studies

SeaView-With SeaView’s drone based monitoring systems swimming at the local beach, waterpark, or pool becomes nearly entirely worry free. SeaView systems are an efficient way to provide more eyes on swimmers and will ideally seek to elimante all risks related to swimming.

Smart Val, a better way to venture- An app that would center around securing people’s vehicles and parking or offering other services while they are away or unable to do so themselves due to time or other constraints.

Solo Adventurer Safety System- Providing reliable GPS tracking and communication with a timed checking system to make sure the adventurer is always safe.

T.A.P- T.A.P, an acronym for teach-a-pal, is a concept to address this insufficiency by introducing and utilizing a peer to peer study solution in hopes of increasing performance in exams.

TaskTime- An app to assist AD(H)D and executive dysfunctional professionals in the workplace to manage time and tasks more persistently.

This past Wednesday, February 28th, our last workshop in the series was held in Lydon Library, Room 110, from 5:30-7:30PM. This workshop was focused on delivering your rocket pitch to the judges at the Idea Challenge.

Faculty Fellows Michelle Bazin, and John Brown took control of this workshop. Michelle is the Co-Director of Legal Studies, and John is the Program Advisor for Undergraduate Education Minor. They gave awesome advice on their experience with speaking in front of large crowds, and giving presentations, which they do almost everyday.

Some students were brave enough to do their pitch on a whim, and impressed us all!

We hope this workshop helped you feel more prepared for one of the most nerve-racking parts of the Idea Challenge. Also, a big thank you to everyone who attended this years workshop series. Good luck to all students in the Idea Challenge!

On February 26th, we hosted our third workshop in our workshop series. The topic for this workshop was developing business models. Over 30 students showed up, eager to participate in the event, and there was even a delicious turkey dinner!

The speakers for this workshop were faculty fellows Tom O’Donnell and Hunter Mack. They each worked off of each other and made a great presentation on the ways to develop a business model, with interesting videos and step by step processes.

Students periodically stopped to reflect, and used boards to formulate their own business model template. Lots of brainstorming was happening!

Thank you to everyone for coming and making this workshop so much fun. We hope the information you learned was useful in your preparation for the Idea Challenge!

Our second series in our Workshop Series was held last night, February 22nd, in Lydon Library Room 110. From 5:30-7:30PM. The focus on this workshop was Assessing Opportunities and Value Propositions. Students learned more about assessing the opportunities related to their project, as well as their project’s value, all while enjoying some yummy baked potatoes!

The workshop was led by Faculty Fellows Brent Shell, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, and Neil Shortland, FAHSS. Their presentations were filled with fun and kept us laughing! Brent presented on the opportunities surrounding each teams problem, while Neil tackled the value on each project. They each gave very unique perspectives.

Students then went one by one giving examples of aspects of their project, such as target markets, and establishing a need in solving their problem. They really sold their problems and the need for a solution.

We had a lot of fun with this workshop, and we hope you can make it to the others next week:

Developing Business Models- Feb. 26th, 5:30-7:30PM

Delivering Your Rocket Pitch- Feb. 28th, 5:30-7:30PM

See you there!

Our Workshop series kicked off yesterday, starting with Identifying Problems. This workshop was focused on identifying problems that you’re passionate about solving. There was also the opportunity to meet potential teammates, and gain knowledge and experience to help you move your project forward!

Over 40 individuals and teams met in Lydon Library, Room 110, at 5:30PM to brainstorm ideas and identify the problems, big or small, that they wanted to solve in the world! Lots of pizza and cookies were also served!

Our Faculty Fellow, Mazen El Ghaziri, led the workshop and helped students formulate clear problems without diving into the solutions too early. Students were broken into groups periodically, and asked to present their problems to the group. There were so many unique ideas ranging from apps to find restaurants for people with dietary restrictions, to indestructible phones.

We thank everyone for coming and having fun! Don’t forget to come to our other workshops next week:

Developing Business Models- Feb. 26th, 5:30-7:30PM

Delivering Your Rocket Pitch- Feb. 28th, 5:30-7:30PM

We hope everyone can make them. Keep preparing for the Idea Challenge!

This past Monday, February 12th, after a snow storm and a rescheduling, we finally held our 2018 Idea Challenge Kick-off from 5:30 to 7PM in the Saab ETIC Atrium located on North Campus. There was a large array of food, and the night started with some light networking as everyone got set up. We had over 45+ students attending this event! Steve Tello, Vice Provost for Innovation and Workforce Development, started the event with an overview of the program and a brief explanation of this years Idea Challenge.

Shortly after, a panel of students and alumni was lead by Neil Shortland, Director for the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies, and Assistant Professor. The panel included Rajia Abdelaziz from Invisawear, Craig Kelly & Julie Ballo with eNable, and Kierra Walsh with UML Green Roofs. They talked about their experiences with DifferenceMaker and how they were able to turn their ideas into a reality.

To close the night, Ha Pho, Manager of DifferenceMaker led an Idea Hack. Students were asked to form groups based on their ideas. Some examples of categories were Social Responsibility, Opioid Challenge, Mobile Application, and Health and Wellness. Teams were asked to brainstorm problems related to their category, and then try and form a solution. One team member from each group would then describe their problem and solution!

It was so exciting to see the students working together to come up with ideas, and having fun! We’re thankful to everyone who came, and we hoped some students will take their ideas and apply to the Idea Challenge. Applications close February 19th!

This past Friday, February 9th, we held our 2018 Freshman DifferenceMaker Seminar in Olney, room 150, on North Campus. Freshman from different classes piled in to the big lecture hall to hear the experiences from three current and previous DifferenceMaker teams!

DifferenceMaker Director, Holly Butler, led a panel of students and alumni to discuss their experience with DifferenceMaker, and how their success has continued after receiving mentorship. The three teams were eNable Lowell, Invisawear, and UML Greenroofs. Each answered questions and gave great advice like “don’t be afraid to ask for advice” and “don’t be afraid to start.”

After, the audience was able to ask the panel questions. Questions ranged from asking Invisawear about their product, to “would you consider going on shark tank.”

We hope the seminar was resourceful, and we are excited to see people come to DifferenceMaker Central to share their ideas with us!

Come support eNable!

eNable is hosting their 2nd Annual Comedy Show Fundraiser at University Crossing, Moloney Hall, on February 21st, from 6-9 PM! Come stop by to see comedian Graig Murphy headline. There will also be live music, auctions, raffles, and loads of food! You can’t miss out!

You can purchase tickets for $35/person at their website: https://enablelowell.weebly.com/2018fundraiser.html

Also, if you reserve a table for 8 or more, you can get a discounted price of $30/person

They have also recently announced there will be tickets sold with a student discount, for only $20! You can email Team@eNableLowell.com to reserve your student ticket. Make sure to have your student ID handy.

Hope you can make it!