On Thursday, July 13, 2017, DifferenceMaker teams gathered in Umass Lowell’s Innovation hub to pitch their final ideas to alumni, faculty fellows, and mentors. The four-week bootcamp the teams attended this summer prepared them for Demo Day. This event was an opportunity for teams to showcase their solutions to potential mentors. During their pitches, they explained their business plans, potential customers and described in depth the qualities and skills they are searching for in order to strengthen and improve their opportunities along with their product. Many of the teams even displayed their prototypes. The main focus of the event is to advance teams’ progress with the help of mentors. The teams were able to receive insightful feedback during the time given for Q&A. They were given the opportunity to network with alumni and local business professionals.

Student co-ops Cody Weimar, Perla Ponce, and Amy Ward greet professor Steven Tello.

Large crowd consisting of alumni, faculty fellows, and mentors in UML’s IHub.

The event was catered by Aramark. There were many options to choose from, varying from spinach dip, to egg rolls.

Team QBell presents their hospital experience improving software.

Team Cyborg displays their prototype to potential mentor.

Thank you to all those who attended. We hope to see you again next year.

Summer Boot Camp Session 4 was bittersweet; us at DifferenceMaker are thrilled to see what the teams have to accomplish, but we will miss meeting with the students every Thursday! The session began with a Mad Libs activity. Each team filled in the blanks regarding the problem they’re solving, their goal, and product. The results were outstanding, everyone was creative and willing to share. The teams presented hypothesis’ that were followed by answers and solutions. The teams received insight from eight different advisors during the Round Robin Advising. Each team introduced their idea to an advisor and received feedback. They moved to a different advisor every seven minutes. Since all the teams were present for all four sessions, they received permission to use $1,000 of the funding they won at the DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge. The students left with homework to work on for Demo Day.

DifferenceMaker would like to thank Michelle Bazin, Jack Wang and Hunter Mack for their undivided support and attention these past four weeks. Their efforts were greatly appreciated!

• Michelle Bazin
  • Professor – College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Co-Director of Legal Studies and UML, Lawyer, Non-profits
  • DM Guest Speaker – Entrepreneural Speaker Series
• Jack Wang
  • DifferenceMaker and EforAll Mentor
  • Business development, finance/accounting, Non-profits
• Hunter Mack
  • Professor – Francis College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Francis College of Engineering

Thank you to our Round Robin Advising guests!

• Gary Ainsworth
  • UML New Venture Fellow
  • Business dev. and strategy, engineering, sciences
• Stephen Powell
  • UML MSB Faculty, Market research and intelligence, product management, strategic pricing
• Michael Ciuchta
  • UML MSB Faculty, finance, strategy
• Deb Finch
  • UML MSB Faculty and DM Fellow, non-profits
• Steven Geyster
  • UML Eng. Alumni, entrepreneur, med-device
• Nancy Saucier
  • UML Staff, New Venture Development
• Ira Turner
  • UML Sciences Alumni, Lawyer, Patent Law
• David Vatalaro
  • UML Eng. Alumni, software engineering

The 3rd Boot Camp of the summer was the most exciting session yet! Multiple teams brought in their prototypes to share with their advisors and peers. Up to date, many individuals in the room had only heard each other’s ideas, but seeing physical products gave the teams a boost of enthusiasm! Once again, the session was focused on their target market and the stages necessary for their products development. In previous sessions, the teams were advised to interview individuals and contact professionals in their field. During their presentations, they explained the information they found and the changes they made to their business model canvas. Like always, the advisors were impressed by the progress each team made. At the end of the session, teams were given the task to research customer relationships, key resources, and their cost structure. We can’t wait to see what they bring next session!

UML alum Chris McKenna and Dave Kantaros from Foley & Lardner LLP informed the teams about the multiple types of patents and corporations, as well as receiving funding.

Thank you to the sessions special guests!

• Michelle Bazin
  • Professor – College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Co-Director of Legal Studies and UML, Lawyer, Non-profits
  • DM Guest Speaker – Entrepreneural Speaker Series
• Jack Wang
  • DifferenceMaker and EforAll Mentor
  • Business development, finance/accounting, Non-profits
• Hunter Mack
  • Professor – Francis College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Francis College of Engineering
• David W. Kantaros
  • Foley & Lardner LLP Partner
• Christopher J. McKenna
  • Foley & Lardner LLP Partner

On Thursday, June 1st, DifferenceMaker welcomed the 2017 DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge winners for the opportunity to work and receive insightful feedback to further advance their projects. Eager to learn, the teams gathered in room 120 of the newly built Pulichino Tong Business Center. In the first of many Summer Boot Camp sessions, the teams began to comprehend what customer segments are, what business model they should focus on, and more importantly, ways of implementing their winning funds. Through visuals, Ha Pho, explained in detail the steps necessary to make the teams’ ideas flourish. It was not long before each team was up on their feet presenting their product pitch. Their presentation was followed by questions and advice from advisors and peers with the intention of guiding them in the right direction. Holly Butler made sure to remind the students not to feel pressured if they did not know all the answers; this is just the beginning! The students left the session with a better understanding of what they should work toward and the knowledge they should bring when we meet next week.

Guest Speaker, Steven Tello, made an appearance to show his support toward DifferenceMaker and it’s teams!

A special thank you to the advisors who are dedicating their time to assist the teams!

• Michelle Bazin
  • Professor – College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Co-Director of Legal Studies and UML, Lawyer, Non-profits
  • DM Guest Speaker – Entrepreneural Speaker Series
• Jack Wang
  • DifferenceMaker and EforAll Mentor
  • Business development, finance/accounting, Non-profits
• Hunter Mack
  • Professor – Francis College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Francis College of Engineering