On Wednesday, April 13, 2022, DifferenceMaker hosted the 10^th Annual $50,000 Idea Challenge at University Crossing, Moloney Hall, Room 260.

The event began at 5 p.m. with a networking reception and poster viewing. The ten finalist student teams showcased their projects to students, faculty, and alumni. Attendees were given “DifferenceMaker dollars” to distribute to their favorite teams for “Fan Favorite”.

Around, at 6 p.m., Neil Shortland, Professor and Faculty Fellow of the College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences provided welcoming remarks to kick-off the event. He then introduced Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney, who also spoke.

Afterward, from 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., the student teams pitched off! Each team got five minutes to pitch, followed by a five minute Q&A session by the judges.

Once all teams pitched, the judges went into a separate room to deliberate. While they did so, there was more networking and poster viewing.

Thank you to the panel of judges:

Lorna Boucher, ’86, Manning School of Business; Chief Marketing Officer, Instinet

Roger Cressey ’87, Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Partner, Mountain Wave Ventures, LLC

Brian Rist ’77, Manning School of Business; Chairman, Rist Family Foundation

Maura Walsh ’80, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences; President, Hospital Corporation of America’s Gulf Coast Division (retired)

Jack Wilson; President Emeritus UMass System and Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, Emerging Technologies, and Innovation, UMass Lowell

At 8:30 p.m., the final awards ceremony and closing remarks took place. Holly Lalos, Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute welcomed everyone back. She then introduced Brian Rist, ‘77, Manning School of Business, Chairman, Rist Family Foundation. Mr. Rist announced the winners.

 Congratulations to all teams!

Rist Campus-Wide DifferenceMaker – $6,000 – Amara:
A social media platform with transparency and a better algorithm.
Brandon Conceicao, Adam Iskandar, Biology

Commitment to a Sustainable Environment – $4,000 – ThermoEXA: Intelligent and personalized indoor temperature control through unique biometrics recognition.
Ariel Pena-Martinez, Computer Engineering, and Grissel Cervantes-Jaramillo

Jack. M. Wilson First Product to Market Award (Sponsored by Jack Wilson, President Emeritus) – $4,000 – Hoppers:
A board game that fosters education, communication skills, and creativity for younger children.
Abigail White, Biology, Alyssa Kennedy, Biology

Sutherland Innovative Technology Solution (Sponsored by Andrew Sutherland ’94) – $4,000 – Tendren:
A wireless pulse oximeter combined with an ECG/blood pressure to track patients in the waiting room.
Ethan Block, Biomedical Engineering, Amie Russell Biomedical Engineering, Victoria Williams, Biomedical Engineering

Contribution to a Healthier Lifestyle – $4,000 – PEAK Performance:
A device that assesses/corrects rotational misalignments between the pelvis and spine.

Evelyn Duffy, Biomedical Engineering and Business, Mark Elman, Biomedical Engineering, Steven Evangelos Biomedical Engineering, Matthew Martel, Exercise Science

Significant Social Impact – $4,000 – Minds with Purpose:
A networking platform that unites people of different professions, areas, and styles.
Sammy Santana, Liberal Arts, Jeurys Santiago, Business

Honorable Mention – $2,000 – StockToMe:
A stock opinion community where anybody can post an opinion about a stock.
Matthew Allen, Business, Matthew Kinash, Business – Entrepreneurship, Jackson Sterrett, Business

Honorable Mention – $2,000 – UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association:
An organization dedicated to promoting Japanese culture.
Mina Lam, Business

Honorable Mention – $2,000 – USuccess:
A program to help individuals’ financial situations through education.
Kaitlyn Catron, Business, Kyle Knapp, Business, Anna Kouadio, Business, Mikaela Murphy, Business, Nyna Pendkar, Business

Honorable Mention – $2,000 – Vital Sensing Patch:
An all-in-one, affordable vitals monitoring device that can be used anywhere. Thang Do, Biomedical Engineering, Haris Kum, Biomedical Engineering, Wynn Wiggins, Business – Entrepreneurship

Fan Favorite – $1,000 – MetaLingual:
Virtual Reality experience containing servers of various 6D 360 immersive environments that promotes language learning that offers a real-life experience.
Aiman Baig, Computer Science, Nihal Chaudhary, Language Studies, Haris Waqar, Electrical Engineering, Isa Ahmed, Business – Accounting, Samuel Lugo, Electrical Engineering, Zuhair Shaikh Computer Science

To close off the night, Joseph Hartman, Provost and Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, UMass Lowell closed off the event. He mentioned a quote that Jeurys Santiago, CEO, Minds with Purpose, posted on LinkedIn after the Preliminary Pitch-Off – “I’m here today because I failed last year!” This showcases that if you put your mind towards working on your passions, hard work pays off.

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2022 10th Annual DifferenceMaker $50K Idea Challenge Finals! View photos from the event here.

View UMass Lowell article written by Ed Brennan, Senior Writer, UMass Lowell.

On Wednesday, April 6, DifferenceMaker held its 10th Annual 2022 Preliminary Pitch-Off at O’Leary Library on South Campus. This year, 24 student teams got the opportunity to pitch their creative, innovative ideas to a panel of guest judges. Overall, 18 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 13 at the 10th Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge for a chance to win a portion of $50,000.

Congratulations to the ten finalist teams!

Amara
Team members: Brandon Conceicao, Vision & Design; Adam Iskandar, Biology & Business
Project Description: A social media platform with transparency and better algorithm.

Hoppers
Team members: Alyssa Kennedy, Biology; Abigail White, Biology
Project Description: A board game that supports the arts and fosters education, communication skills, and creativity for younger children.

Minds With Purpose
Team members: Sammy Santana, Liberal Arts; Jeurys Santiago, Business
Project Description: A networking platform with the aim of bringing together people of different professions, areas, and styles.

PEAK Performance
Team members: Evelyn Duffy, Biomedical Engineering and Business; Mark Elman, Biomedical Engineering; Steven Evangelos, Biomedical Engineering; Matthew Martel, Exercise Science
Project Description: A device [the PEAK Performance System] that assesses and corrects rotational misalignments between the pelvis and thoracic spine.

StockToMe
Team members: Matthew Allen, Business; Matthew Kinash, Business; Jackson Sterrett, Business
Project Description: A stock opinion community where anybody can post an opinion about a stock.

Tendren
Team members: Ethan Block, Biomedical Engineering; Amie Russell, Biomedical Engineering; Victoria Williams, Biomedical Engineering
Project Description: A wireless pulse oximeter combined with an ECG and blood pressure that tracks a patient’s vitals while in the waiting room

ThermoEXA
Team members: Ariel Pena-Martinez, Computer Engineering; Grissel Cervantes-Jaramillo
Project Description: Intelligent and personalized indoor temperature control through unique biometrics recognition.

UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association
Team member: Mina Lam, Business
Project Description: An organization dedicated to promoting greater awareness of Japanese culture through general meetings, social media, and collaborations with UML clubs.

USuccess
Team members: Kaitlyn Catron, Business; Kyle Knapp, Business; Anna Kouadio, Business; Mikaela Murphy, Business; Nyna Pendkar, Business
Project Description: A program to help individuals’ financial situations through education.

Vital Sensing Patch
Team members: Thang Do, Biomedical Engineering; Haris Kum, Biomedical Engineering; Wynn Wiggins, Entrepreneurship
Project Description: All-in-one vital monitoring device, that will be affordable to consumers and can be used anywhere.

DifferenceMaker would like to extend a special thanks to the guest judges:

Janet Benvenuti ‘77 ‘82, Kennedy College of Sciences. President and CEO, Circle of Life Partners

Martha Coxe ‘99, Francis College of Engineering. Client Executive, State Street Global Advisors

Mark Dyment ’86, Francis College of Engineering. CEO, YMC Process Technologies, Inc.

Steven Geyster ‘83, Francis College of Engineering. Medical Device Consultant

John Grayson ‘87, Francis College of Engineering. Serial Entrepreneur and Advisor

Michele Holland ‘87, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. Co-founder, Performance Rehab, Inc.

Belinda Juran. Ali Fellow, Harvard University Advanced Leadership Institute

Brenda Maille ‘78 ‘78, Kennedy College of Sciences and College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Principal/Attorney, Law Offices of Brenda Maille

Glenn Morgan ‘86, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, FUSEIDEAS

John Norden ‘80, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Vice President, Pricing, General Dynamics Information Technology

Patty Payette ‘78. School of Education, Vice President, Human Resources (Retired), Curriculum Associates, LLC

Doug Reader ‘83, Manning School of Business. Chief Executive Officer, Arizona Nutritional Supplements

Michael Rider ‘87, Francis College of Engineering. Vice President, Engineering and Operations, Coravin, LLC

Marcus Sebastiano ‘03, College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Founder, The Blochaus Gallery

Raymond Southworth ‘81, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Chief Operating Officer, Netria Corporation

Andrew Sutherland ‘94, Manning School of Business. Co-Founder, Applied BioMath

Anne Veilleux Williams ‘85, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst, OneSky Flight, LLC

Bill Yelle ‘85, Kennedy College of Sciences. Executive in Residence, MGH-Brigham Ventures

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

Don’t forget to stop by the 2022 $50k Idea Challenge on April 13^th from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m. in University Crossing, Moloney Hall, Room 260 to see the finalist student teams pitch their ideas!

Register for the Idea Challenge here.

On March 17, 2022, from 5:30 – 7 pm, DifferenceMaker held its fourth workshop series session at Lydon Library, Room 110, North Campus. The guest presenters for the evening were Professor Cathy Levey, College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor Kevin Willett, Manning School of Business, CEO of Friends of Kevin, and Rick Sherburne, CEO, SherburneCommunications.

Semi-finalist teams attended this session to learn about delivering their rocket pitch for the Preliminary Pitch-off on April 6^th. At this event, teams have a chance to advance to the $50,000 Idea Challenge Final event. The semi-finalist teams who will be pitching at the Preliminary Pitch-off are:

404! – Team members: Madhav Makadia and Kofi Kissi
Project Description: A dating app for fitness-focused people.

Amara – Team members: Adam Iskandar, Krishna Kanagarayer, and Brandon Amara
Project Description: A social media platform with transparency and improved algorithms.

BLACK – Team member: Kristin Kihara
Project Description: A magazine line that highlights black creators.

Cerebrum – Team members: Solomon Enowmanyi, Linnea Zagaeski, Xiomara Matathias, and Bahara Hussaini
Project Description: A peace and conflict resolution program.

ChainBlock – Team members: Hirschfield Ssozi and Aymaan Shaikh
Project Description: A blockchain-based banking system like cryptocurrency.

DataMiNation – Team members: Kanan Asif
Project Description: Free training programs on hard skills and professional skills for young people who cannot afford to learn from other paid sources.

Draw a Print – Team members: Daniel GermanGeorge, Jonathan Aguilar, Philopater Askander, Theresa Foley, Ruolin Zho, and Yibo Li
Project Description: A 3D printing tool that facilitates training both in industry and academia.

FC Pack Design – Team member: Felix CarpioDelRosario
Project Description: A backpack to help ease weight and help the realignment of the spinal cord and back.

Gotham – Team member: Kamal Norford
Project Description: Improving and refurbishing automotive technology.

Hoppers – Team members: Abigail White and Alyssa Kennedy
Project Description: A board game that supports the arts and fosters education, communication skills, and creativity for younger children.

Innovation X Industries – Team members: Joshua Saunders, Rowan Trotter, Ryan Baker, and Nathan Savoie
Project Description: An innovative pipe shut-off system for a smarter home to conserve water after a pipe burst.

Insulated and Shock Absorbent Foam 3D Printed Covers – Team members: Karun Kalia, Ninad Khadse, and Shallal Alshammari
Project Description: Foamed and flexible insulated covers for cell phones to minimize battery drainage in cold weather conditions.

MBM – Team member: Elyas Irankhah
Project Description: A system designed to anticipate the appropriate time for injecting F-8 in hemophilia patients.

MetaLingual – Team members: Aiman Baig, Haris Waqar, Zuhair Shaikh, Samuel LugoMedina, and Isa Ahmed
Project Description: Virtual Reality experience containing servers of various 6D 360 immersive environments.

Minds With Purpose – Team members: Jeurys Santiago, Jennifer Lerman, and Sammy Santana
Project Description: A networking platform with the aim of bringing together people of different professions, areas, and styles.

PEAK Performance – Team members: Steven Evangelos, Matthew Martel, Evelyn Duffy, and Mark Elman
Project Description: A device [the PEAK Performance System] that assesses and corrects rotational misalignments between the pelvis and thoracic spine.

Rune World – Team members: John Doherty and Linnea Zagaeski
Project Description: A board game designed around helping children with autism improve their social skills.

Speakup – Team member: Matheus Perazolla
Project Description: A platform/app which provides English classes focused on immigrant necessities and needs.

StockToMe – Team members: Matthew Kinash, Jackson Sterrett, and Matthew Allen
Project Description: A stock opinion community where anybody can post an opinion about a stock.

Study Meet – Team members: Solomon Wambuzi, Gissel Bonilla, Brendaliz Cabada Morel, and Ester Rosario
Project Description: An application that focuses on benefiting students that feel left out of the college experience.

SunGum – Team members: Chris Behm, Andrew Bernard, and Nolan Buckley
Project Description: Chewing gum fortified with vitamin D to combat vitamin D deficiencies and seasonal depression.

Tendren – Team members: Ethan Block, Amie Russell, and Victoria Williams
Project Description: A wireless pulse oximeter combined with an ECG and blood pressure that tracks a patient’s vitals while in the waiting room.

ThermoEXA – Team members: Ariel Pena-Martinez, Mohamed Martini, Gerardo Gomez Perez, and Grissel Cervantes-Jaramillo
Project Description: Intelligent and personalized indoor temperature control through unique biometrics recognition.

Trade Bozz Investment Corp. – Team members: Toney Benny and Sebastian Pascal
Project Description: A financial literacy platform focused on helping Gen Z and Millennials  build wealth via the stock market.

Traffic Lighthouse – Team member: Alexa Grazio
Project Description: A portable traffic light that can be placed on top of 18-wheeler trucks to alert cars.

UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association – Team member: Mina Lam
Project Description: An organization dedicated to promoting greater awareness of Japanese culture through general meetings, social media, and collaborations with UMass Lowell clubs.

USuccess – Team members: Nyna Pendkar, Mikaela Murphy, Anna Kouadio, Kyle Knapp, and Kaitlyn Catron
Project Description: A program to help individuals’ financial situations through education.

Vital Sensing Patch – Team members: Wynn Wiggins, Thang Do, and Haris Kum
Project Description: An all-in-one vitals monitoring device, that will be affordable to consumers and can be used anywhere.

To start off the workshop, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow David Vatalaro provided a recap of the past workshop sessions, which addressed topics such as Identifying Problems, Assessing Opportunities and Value Proposition, and Developing Business Models.

Then, Professor Cathy Levey opened and discussed the content that should be addressed during the DifferenceMaker pitch presentation: the problem, opportunity, solution, needed resources, as well as being prepared for judge questions. She also spoke about additional considerations to look out for during and after the rocket pitch session.

Afterwards, Rick Sherburne spoke about the challenge of presenting an idea. To tackle this, he discussed being confident and sharing your topic with lots of energy and passion. In addition, he mentioned the reasons why people struggle with stage fright. Self-consciousness in front of large groups, past failures, and fear of being nervous are a few examples. He also talked about having relevant pictures on each slide, as well as limiting the words per slide, which helps keep the audience engaged.

Mr. Sherburne also facilitated an engaging activity where the students were encouraged to stand up and say “oh” to various scenarios. This allowed the students to see how tone changes based on the scenario you are in. For example, the volume and tone used is different when looking at an infant versus seeing a win at a sporting event.

To conclude the night, Professor Kevin Willett highlighted examples of past student team presentations, such as III Point Stick. This allowed students to compare what they just learned to an actual pitch presentation that occurred. Students can watch and learn from other past pitches that are on the DifferenceMaker YouTube page, which can be utilized while practicing for the Preliminary Pitch-off.

Thank you to everyone who attended Workshop 4! Good luck to all teams pitching at the Preliminary Pitch-off on April 6 at the O’Leary Library, Mezzanine. Register for the Preliminary Pitch-off here.

Additionally, the 2022 10^th Annual DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge will take place on April 13 at University Crossing, Moloney Hall, Room 260. Register for the $50,000 Idea Challenge here.

On Thursday, February 24^th, DifferenceMaker held Workshop 3: Developing Business Models and Solutions in Lydon Library, Room 110, North Campus, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. This session helped student teams who applied to the $50,000 Idea Challenge to focus on their idea’s solutions by piecing together their business models.

To kick off the night, Holly Lalos, Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute welcomed everyone. She then provided students with information on submitting their Idea Plan, announcements for semi-finalists, and reminders to schedule a meeting for one-on-one coaching with mentors. Then, she introduced the guest presenters for the night, who were Professor Carter Keough, Francis College of Engineering, and Tom O’Donnell, Senior Director, Innovation Initiatives.

Professor Keough started off by providing examples of companies such as Gillette, FedEx, Zipcar, and Pill Pack. Each are successful companies in their own way, all from various industries in today’s market. For example, Gillette makes their profit by selling cheap razor handles that go along with expensive, high quality razor blades that attach to them. This allows customers to stay loyal to their brand, as they need to continually purchase the specific Gillette blades that fit to the handle that they already own.

Then, Mr. O’Donnell went further in depth and explained the multiple components needed to have a successful business model. He discussed factors such as the new venture timeline and each component of the business model canvas, such as customer segments, value proposition, revenue streams, and more. This allowed students to think deeply about details that will drive their ideas to success in the real world.

After the detailed lessons, the guest presenters encouraged students to work on their business models and solutions. They utilized business model canvas poster boards and solution worksheets to assist with this process. A business model canvas glossary was also provided to each student to help refresh their memory on the information that was provided. DifferenceMaker mentors Ryan Berube, Vice President, Commercial Loan Officer, Lowell Five and Steve DeVries, FocalPoint Certified Business and Executive Coach, FocalPoint Coaching walked around and further helped guide students towards creating a well-developed Idea Plan.

Thank you to everyone that joined DifferenceMaker for Workshop 3! If you are interested in learning how to further develop your project for the $50,000 Idea Challenge, recruiting new team members, and gaining new skills, please register for the final workshop this semester. Dinner will be served!

Workshop 4 – Delivering Your Rocket Pitch, March 17

Questions? Email us at DifferenceMaker@uml.edu.

On February 22, 2022, DifferenceMaker held the second workshop series session to prepare students for the $50,000 Idea Challenge this semester. The topic addressed was assessing opportunities and value proposition.

To start off the event, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow David Vatalaro opened by providing a brief recap of what occurred during the first workshop session, which highlighted identifying problems. Then, he introduced the guest presenters for the night, which were Professor Brent Shell, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, and Professor Neil Shortland, College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

After the introduction, Professor Shell mentioned that while our ideas seem incredibly valuable to us, it may not be the case for potential customers and buyers. He provided the example of pickle toothpaste, which is unique to him. However, at the end of the day, no one ends up purchasing it. Assessing opportunities is important because it allows you to see if it is worthwhile creating the product before it is too late. If there are no willing buyers, the product does not fill a customer need or add enough value. Therefore, market research is imperative.

Then, students were given time to write down their opportunities on the “target market opportunity” and “competition opportunity” worksheets. DifferenceMaker mentors Ryan Berube, Vice President, Commercial Loan Officer, Lowell Five and Steve DeVries, FocalPoint Certified Business and Executive Coach, FocalPoint Coaching walked around and further helped guide students with this process. After some time on this, students presented their work to the audience, receiving feedback from the presenters.

Then, Professor Shortland presented the importance of value propositions. A value proposition demonstrates how a potential solution provides more value than what competitors are currently offering. Students broke out into groups again to work on their value propositions on poster boards, then were given the chance to share their ideas with the audience.

Thank you to everyone that joined DifferenceMaker for Workshop 2! If you are interested in learning how to further develop your project for the $50,000 Idea Challenge, recruiting new team members, and gaining new skills, please register for the upcoming workshops. Dinner is served at each session, which all take place from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at Lydon Library, Room 110, North Campus:  

Workshop 3 – Developing Business Models, February 24 

Workshop 4 – Delivering Your Rocket Pitch, March 17 

Questions? Email us at DifferenceMaker@uml.edu. 

On February 17, from 5:30 – 7 p.m., the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute held the semester’s first workshop session! The focus for Workshop 1 was on identifying problems. Over 35 students attended to learn and network with students interested in pursuing their ideas for the $50,000 Idea Challenge.

To start off, Holly Lalos, Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute welcomed everyone. She provided a brief overview of the DifferenceMaker program, what to expect from the workshop series, and the agenda for the evening. She then introduced the Faculty Fellows guest presenters: Professor Mazen El Ghaziri, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Professor Tom Wilkes, Kennedy College of Sciences, and Professor Rae Mansfield, Honors College.

Next, Professor El Ghaziri presented the definition of problems. He opened a Slido poll that allowed students to share what comes to mind when they hear the word “problem”. This created a brainstorming discussion, helping students figure out what they are trying to solve.

Shortly after, Professor Wilkes extended the talk by showcasing examples of problems presented by past DifferenceMaker student teams. Videos of their pitches were provided to give students clarity on how to move forward. For example, a team that was highlighted was the CAT Mat pitch, presented by students Katie Muise and Michelle Mailloux, both from the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. The problem they identified is the inability for patients to practice relearning how to walk. Going outside to do so isn’t the safest option, while staying indoors does not fully prepare patients to go back to the real-world.

This is an example of a team who worked diligently during their time at DifferenceMaker, as they ended up winning first place against teams such as Harvard and MIT during the Beantown Throwdown competition in 2019!

Then, a brainstorming activity took place where students were able to discuss the problems they are looking to solve with each other. Along with the guest presenters, DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow Kevin Willet, Manning School of Business, and two DifferenceMaker Mentors, Steve DeVries, Business Coach, Focal Point Coaching, and Ryan Berube, Vice President, Commercial Loan Officer, Lowell Five, assisted with this process.

This allowed students to network with one another and gain new connections for potential teammates. Each person/group utilized the “DifferenceMaker Problem Toolkit Worksheet” to help with narrowing the specifics of the issue at hand.

Afterwards, students presented their ideas to everyone. The problems ranged from a variety of topics, such as unaffordable Epipen injectors, vitamin D deficiencies, lack of information about personal finances, and more.

Thank you to everyone that joined DifferenceMaker for Workshop 1! To revisit the topics discussed, watch the video featuring its’ highlights here.

If you are interested in learning how to further develop your project for the $50,000 Idea Challenge, recruiting new team members, and gaining new skills, please register for the upcoming workshops. Dinner is served at each session, which all take place from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at Lydon Library, Room 110, North Campus:

Workshop 2 – Assessing Opportunities and Value Propositions, February 22
Guest speakers: Professors Brent Shell, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences and Neil Shortland, FAHSS

Workshop 3 – Developing Business Models, February 24
Guest speakers: Professor Carter Keough, Francis College of Engineering and Tom ODonnell, Executive Director, Innovation Initiatives

Workshop 4 – Delivering Your Rocket Pitch, March 17
Guest speakers: Professors Cathy Levey, FAHSS and Kevin Willett, Manning School of Business, and Rick Sherburne, Pitch coach and CEO, Sherburne Communications

Questions? Email us at DifferenceMaker@uml.edu.

On Tuesday, December 14, 2021, DifferenceMaker partnered with Project LEARN at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub to provide an entrepreneurship field trip day to Lowell High School students. The day started around 9:00 a.m. when around 50 students arrived at the Lowell Innovation Hub.

From 9:00- 11:00 a.m., Rist DifferenceMaker Institute Director, Holly Lalos, introduced the program. Next, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow, David Vatalaro, introduced the Tinker Toy Ideation activity.

Students were told that they needed to rescue someone on an island and were instructed to build a vessel to transport their Tinker Toy person to the mainland. The Lowell High School students eagerly got to work building cars, boats, and helicopters out of Tinker Toys.

After time passed, another problem was introduced – the students were informed they could not build a water vehicle or flying vessel. This left several teams working to change their original plans. Students then started trading materials with other teams and using objects that they had in their backpacks to craft their creative vehicle.

Next, students tested their prototypes on a slanted wooden board (“a mountain”) with Tinker Toys at the bottom (“rocks”). As a result of teams testing their vehicles, they were able to make changes to their designs to make them work more efficiently – the iterative process of prototyping.

After testing their prototypes, each team had a chance to pitch their innovative vehicle design and send their vehicle down “the mountain”. The location of each teams vehicle was marked. At the end, the teams vehicle that travelled the furthest won a DifferenceMaker prize.

In the afternoon, Rajia Abdelaziz, Co-founder and CEO of invisaWear spoke to the students about her experience starting a company. She talked about the challenges that she faced as a young, female student. Additionally, Ms. Abdelaziz spoke about the DifferenceMaker program and how it helped with support and resources she needed to make her dream a reality.

Then, Joe Hartman, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, UMass Lowell, spoke to the Lowell High Students. He highlighted the opportunities that going to college at UMass Lowell provides, with a focus on the benefits of DifferenceMaker for aspiring entrepreneurs and creative thinkers.

After the Provost’s remarks, Tyler Cote, Co-Founder and Director of Operation 250 spoke to the students about his experiences starting a nonprofit. Mr. Cote had an interactive presentation which engaged students, such as gathering their opinions on whether social media is harmful or beneficial to society.

He explained his company’s goal, which is to make the internet a safer place. Additionally, he talked about the resources he used at UMass Lowell to start Operation 250. Lastly, he spoke about how students of all majors can start a business by solving problems and that networking is important.

At noon, lunch was served from Purple Carrot and students had the opportunity to talk to a representative from the university. The day wrapped up with a tour of the Innovation Hub and the Fashion Makerspace.

Thank you to everyone who made this event possible: Mira Bookman and LZ Nunn, Project LEARN; Jill Taylor, Lowell High School; Lisa Armstrong, Innovation Hub; Diana Coluntino, Fashion Makerspace.

On December 15th, DifferenceMaker® held its 3rd Annual High School Idea Challenge from 9am-1pm at UMass Lowell’s Haverhill Innovation Hub.

To kick-off the event, Gina Mustoe, teacher, Westford Academy, gave opening remarks. She then passed the stage to Holly Lalos, Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute. Holly presented an overview of DifferenceMaker, sharing the benefits and opportunities the program offers. This was followed by a presentation of the Haverhill Innovation Hub by Stephanie Guyotte, Associate Director, Haverhill Innovation Hub. Then, Holly introduced the judges and emceed the event.

The judges were:

Katie Harrington, Co-Founder, Ambulatory Innovations

Siddhant Iyer, Founder, TrueFIT

Donna Mcfadden, Massachusetts DECA State Advisor

Tatiana Tompkins, team member of Protected Pin & NoSno Mat

Andy Vargas, Massachusetts House of Representatives

After the judge introductions, the event began. The audience was excited to hear the creative ideas from each high school student team. Each pitching team had 5 minutes to present, followed by 5 minutes of judge Q&A. After the presentations, the judges deliberated.

Congratulations to all teams that presented and won awards!

1st place, $500 – Mya Doucette, Gaby Guimaraes, Zach Medailleu, and Gabriel Olafsson, Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School – “ZuMix” – a healthy, organic snack.

2nd place, $300 – Dan Alexander and Neev Maru, Westford Academy – ”MC3D” – an educational STEM-based camp for kids.

3rd place, $200 – Callum Mond, Declan Mond, and Matt Weinfurt, Nashoba Regional High School – “Boxletics” – sports games and equipment delivered regularly to customers doorsteps.

Honorable Mention, DifferenceMaker gear (t-shirt, pen, lanyard, water bottle, notebook) – Isha Macha and Morgan Smith, Westford Academy – “I&M Solutions” – safe and effective teeth whitening solution.

After the presentations, lunch was served, and round table mentor meetings took place between college DifferenceMaker teams and the high school teams. Each high school team had a 15-minute mentor session with the DifferenceMaker college students.

Thank you to the DifferenceMaker teams who volunteered their time to support and inspire the high school students:

BenjiBall, Benjamin McEvoy and Edward Morante

Digital Life, Smriti Kumar, Alejandra LunaJuarez, Amy Nguyen and TinaThuy Nguyen

Green Fertilizer, Benard Tabu and Visal Veng

Smart Escape, Noah Boudreau and Kevin Healy

Terminus, Ariel Shramko

Thank you to DECA Inc. for sponsoring the event prizes. Another thanks to all partnership schools and teachers involved in this collaboration.

To view photos of this event, please visit DifferenceMaker social media:

LinkedIn: DifferenceMaker

Twitter: @difference_UML

Instagram: @differencemakeruml

Facebook: umldifferencemaker

On Thursday, December 2, 2021, the 2021 DifferenceMaker Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition was held at University Crossing from 4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This event consisted of a preliminary round, people’s choice voting, and final round. The twelve teams competing during the preliminary demonstration round were:

– AirGuardian, team members Kieron Sharwood, Adam Warden, and Kevin Zhang

– BioECOL, team members Zachary Katimy, Tomas Lera, Abraham Mudoola, Dimitri Ros

– Draw a Print, team members Johnathan Aguliar, Philopater Askander, Theresa Foley, Daniel German-George, Yibo Li, and Ruolin Zhou

– He4lth, team members Joseph Fallica, Angelica Jones, Sarah Ross, Varun Somasundaram

– MedAlarm, team members Anthony Areche, Mason Burne, Evelyn Duffy, and Maddie McLaren

– No Maskne, team members Alexia Bittarelli, Joshua Frechette, Samuel Paolini, Danelia Rodriguez, and Giovanny Sanchez

– PenGRED, team members Danielle Bucci, Ryan Butler, Gabriela Karnesky, and Grace Murray

– Proprioception & Athletic Performance, team members Mark Elman and Steven Evangelos

– Prosthetic Hand for Steering, team member Tze-min Lin

– Tendren, team members Ethan Block, Amie Russell, and Victoria Williams

– The Accreditors, team members Mayank Amrohi, Nabil Barkallah, Linnae Casebeer, and Evangaline McFarland

– Vision, team member Mohammadali Khalifa

The prototype demonstration round was held from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. in the lobby of University Crossing. Each team had five minutes to present their product to a panel of preliminary judges, followed by a five-minute Q&A session. The preliminary judges were:

– Andrew Amigo, ’94, College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, CEO of Blackburn Energy LLC

– Carol Devellian, ‘85,13, Francis College of Engineering, President of Yeti Biomedical LLC

– Mark Dyment, ‘1986 Francis College of Engineering, CEO of MC Process Technologies, Inc.

– Bill Estes, ’87, Francis College of Engineering, General Manager of Anderson Power Products

– Dave Janeczek, ’82, ’85, Francis College of Engineering, Former Manager Process Development Center of Raytheon Technologies Corporation

– Bill Perciballi, ’86, Francis College of Engineering, Force Engineering

– John Raguin, Growth Advisor

– Mike Rider, ’87, Francis College of Engineering, Vice President of Engineering & Operations of Coravin, LLC

– Leigh Sharrock, ’03, Francis College of Engineering, Director, Systems Engineering of Brooks Automation, Inc.

During the prototype demonstration round, the judges scored each team based on the problem that was being solved, the opportunity that it holds, prototype quality, resources/implementation needed, presentation effectiveness, and overall project. After seeing each team’s pitch and demonstrations, the preliminary judges deliberated on which teams would move forward for the final round.

The teams that moved onto the final competition were:

– Draw a Print (Tailored 3D Standard Triangle Language (STL) CAD Design models for 3D printable parts)

– PenGRED (Epinephrine Auto Injectors for young children)

– Proprioception and Athletic Performance (Alarius Table with MatLab/Arduino Telemetry)

– Prosthetic Hand for Steering (steering wheel prosthetic for farmers)

– Tendren (Emergency Room monitoring during hospital waits)

Meanwhile, the prototype public viewing was held from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. in the lobby of University Crossing. Event attendees which consisted of students, faculty, community friends, and family each had five votes (five, $100,000 bills) to disperse to the teams they liked the best.

The Final Round Competition was held in Moloney Hall from 7:00- 8:00 p.m. The Final Round started with opening remarks by Dean Sherwood and Provost Hartman. Next, the five finalist teams pitched their ideas on stage and demonstrated their prototype to the panel of final judges.

The judges during the final round were:

– Rajia Abdelaziz, ’16, Francis College of Engineering and Kennedy College of Sciences, CEO, invisaWear

– Chad LaFrance, ’92 Francis College of Engineering, Director of Texas Instruments

– Chris McKenna, ’89 Francis College of Engineering

– Mark Saab, ’81, ’13 (H) Francis College of Engineering, Founding Trustee, Saab Family Foundation

– Bhupen Shah, ’92, Francis College of Engineering

After all the presentations the final judges deliberated and selected the winners for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. Additionally, the judges chose an honorable mention award.

The final awards were:

– 1st Place, $2,500, as well as automatically advancing to the DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge Preliminary Pitch-off in April 2022 – Proprioception and Athletic Performance – Mark Elaman and Steven Evangelos

– 2nd Place, $1,500, as well as People’s Choice Award, $500 – Tendren – Ethan Block, Amie Russell, and Victoria Williams

– 3rd place, $1,000, – PenGRED – Danielle Bucci, Ryan Butler, Gabiela Karnesky, and Grace Murray

– Honorable Mention – Prosthetic Hand for Steering, Tze-min Lin

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event! Watch a video featuring the highlights of the competition here.

Interested in pitching an idea and getting funding? Applications for the 10th Annual $50,000 Idea Challenge are open now – apply today!

On December 1, 2021, DifferenceMaker held the 9th Annual DCU/Manning School of Business Innovation Contest from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. at University Crossing, Moloney Hall. To kick off the event, Dean of the Manning School of Business and Event Emcee of the evening, Sandra Richtermeyer provided welcoming remarks.

After the remarks, the finalist judges were introduced. The judges for the evening were:

– Dave Carter, Director of Information Systems Infrastructure, DCU

– Sandesh Parulekar, Director of Information Systems Development, DCU

– Barbara Russell, Co-Founder/Managing Partner, Cap W Global Advisory/Investment Banking Group

– Mike Zuccaro, ‘83, Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis, Akebia Therapeutics

Once all judges were introduced, the event began! Six student finalist teams were given 5-7 minutes to present their ideas, along with 5 minutes of Q&A from the judges. The teams that presented were:

– Chain Bank, team members Aymaan Shaikh and Hirschfield Ssozi

– Credit Champs (Hands Free ATM), team members Benjamin McClure and Nick Paolilio

– Labor as a Service, team leader Kevin Zhang

– Simplicity Bank, team members Yeaharne Hout, Saema Nazar, Monica Nguyen, and Heer Patel

– StockToMe, team members Matt Allen, Matthew Kinash, and Jackson Sterrett

– Trade Bozz, team members Toney Benny and Sabastian Pascal

Each semi-finalist team member won $100. Each team’s idea ranged from topics such as teaching children and young adults on financial literacy, blockchain technology, stock & trading opinions, and more. After each pitch, judges asked questions to help them further understand the ideas. The judges ranked each team based on how clearly they explained their executive summary, mission statement, business goals, market analysis, how they would utilize funding, and project timeline.

Following the presentations, judges went to a separate area to deliberate the final winner. During this time, all attendees got food, networked with each other, took photos, and further discussed the inspiration and details of the ideas that were pitched.

Around 8:15 pm, the judges returned to announce the final award. Congratulations to team StockToMe for winning the final prize of $500 per team member! They also automatically advance to the DifferenceMaker Preliminary Pitch-off this spring.

In total, DCU awarded $2,900 to student teams at this event. Watch a recap of this event here.

Interested in pitching an idea and getting funding? Applications for the 10th Annual $50,000 Idea Challenge are open now – apply today!