DifferenceMaker Program awards startup funds to students for best new ideas

October is Entrepreneurship Month at UMass Lowell, when students will learn entrepreneurial skills from business professionals, faculty mentors and alumni and put their ideas to the test in a variety of competitions.

Students will be introduced to the DifferenceMaker Program at an event on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. Now in its third year, the initiative challenges them to work in teams to develop a product or service that answers a real-world need in business or the community. Teams then pitch their ideas to expert judges, vying for seed money for their ventures. Last year, 70 teams participated in these contests.

Event speakers are expected to include Glenn Morgan ’86, co-owner of SkyWorld Interactive; David Araujo, vice president of Information Systems for DCU; the program’s founder, Steven Tello, UMass Lowell’s associate vice chancellor for entrepreneurship and economic development; and student winners of previous DifferenceMaker competitions. The event will be held in the Perry Atrium of the university’s Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center on North Campus at 40 University Ave., Lowell.

In the coming weeks, teams will gain inspiration from the DifferenceMaker Entrepreneurial Speaker Series, which will explore a variety of topics from intellectual property to venture funding. It will begin on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. with a session on how to launch startups in engineering fields.

Beginning this month, student teams may enter one of three semester-long competitions that align with their interests. The final rounds of these contests will be held in December. They are:

• The DCU Innovation Contest, for students who have developed innovative ideas in banking and finance. Last year’s winners took home $1,500 for their idea to develop a hybrid credit and debit card that allows users to build credit without banks assuming risk. The contest is presented by UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business and DCU.
• The Creative Venture Competition, for students who have developed products, programs or business ventures that provide a social service. Last year, the contest awarded $2,500 to the student whose idea for a web platform called DreamLink. The contest is presented by UMass Lowell’s College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
• The UMass Lowell Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition, a new contest this year that seeks the best prototypes for electrical and mechanical devices, software applications or integrated systems.

In December, students will also have a chance to enter the 2015 DifferenceMaker $35,000 Idea Challenge, which will award cash prizes for winning ideas in a variety of categories during the spring semester.

Contacts: 

Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu

October is Entrepreneurship Month at UMass Lowell & the DifferenceMaker Program is celebrating with our Season Kickoff Event! We invite current DifferenceMakers, prospective students, friends, alumni, faculty, and staff to join us on October 9^th at the Saab Emerging Technology and Innovation Center on North Campus from 6:00pm to 7:30pm. Below is a list of activities that will take place during the event.

• Student teams will showcase their posters
• Networking will take place between students, alumni, faculty and staff
• The UMass Lowell Mentor Program will be launched
• Three college competitions (Manning School of Business, Francis College of Engineering and Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) will be announced
• Winning DifferenceMaker student teams; Nonspec, Bright Future Generation, and Support our Students, will discuss their successes since winning funding from the 2013 and 2014 Idea Challenge events
• Refreshments will be served
• And MUCH more!

We look forward to seeing YOU there! For more information, connect with us via email at differencemaker@uml.edu, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @differencemakeruml.

“How can I get my people to be just as passionate as I am?” If every manager actively tried to think this way, the world would be a much different place. Chester Elton, a motivational speaker and author, writes and speaks about how to promote a strong and positive culture in the workplace through thought processes like this one.

DifferenceMaker LLC students were fortunate enough to attend last night’s Young Professionals of Lowell event that featured Elton as the keynote speaker. Elton inspired students and other audience members by engaging them with interactive prompts and questions with rewards such as carrot stuffed animals, wristbands, and a copy of his new book, All In. Elton explained to the crowd how being active in creating a thoughtful, positive, and fun environment in the workplace can make a difference to the overall happiness and productivity of employees.

The most inspiring aspect of Elton’s presentation was how clear it was that he applies these theories and beliefs toward his own life. Upon doing so, Elton’s success in his professional and personal life is due largely to his positive mental attitude and the supportive culture he creates amongst himself and his network of friends, family, coworkers, etc. He is living proof that attitude toward yourself and those around you truly makes a difference in quality of life, the culture of the workplace, and the likelihood of reaching goals and maintaining success.

Here, Elton posed with DifferenceMaker LLC students, MSB LLC students, and Honors LLC students at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

To see photos from the event, and to stay in tune with future DifferenceMaker events, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @DifferenceMakerUML.

Last night the second DifferenceMaker LLC event was held on the third floor of Fox Hall. DifferenceMaker LLC students, faculty, and team, Hive, met to discuss how to get involved in the Program, and the benefits of doing so.

Hive, previously named Notoja, was the team that presented at the event. The team created a school enrichment collaboration application, which provides modules for student note-taking, book trading, and discussion groups. They won second place in Innovative Technology at the 2013 Idea Challenge.

Hive presented their pitch to the LLC students and explained how the DifferenceMaker Program has helped them reach their goals as entrepreneurs. They then left room for questions and discussion. Many of the questions that followed were from the LLC students who were wondering how challenging being a DifferenceMaker is. They asked about time commitment, idea generation, team building, and potential for success.

Overall, both Hive and the LLC students benefited from the evening through networking and the in depth discussion of the Program.

Tonight is the next DifferenceMaker LLC event at the 9th Annual Business Leadership Forum hosted by the Young Professionals of Greater Lowell. The event will take place at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium from 5:30 to 8:00pm. The keynote speaker for the event is Chester Elton who is an author, motivational speaker, trainer, and employee engagement expert. To learn more about the event contact Project Manager, Ha Pho at Ha_Pho@uml.edu or connect with us through social media, as listed below.

To see photos from the event, and to stay in tune with future DifferenceMaker events, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @DifferenceMakerUML.

Classes, work, friends, family, homework, clubs… Welcome to college! College is the place where the list of to-do’s never ends, and you are always pulled in multiple directions.

The DifferenceMaker Team understands that. We want to welcome the UMass Lowell Class of 2018 to the DifferenceMaker Program with open arms. Our team recognizes that you are new to college and that there is a world of opportunity ahead of you. We want to share with you the opportunities that the Program has to offer, while at the same time, allowing you to decide your direction over the next four years.

As an introduction to the DifferenceMaker Program, we held an event last night to welcome DifferenceMaker LLC students to UMass Lowell. Students met on the third floor of Fox Hall where they chatted with members of the DifferenceMaker Team about themselves, their experiences, and their views on leadership and what “success” means to them.

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Congratulations to the 2013 Campus Wide DifferenceMaker team, Nonspec. On Monday, April 28, 2014 they competed against 9 other teams in the ASME IShow at The Newseum in Washington DC. Nonspec was awarded the 1st place prize of $25,000!!! Congratulations to Nonspec on making a difference through their hard work, dedication, innovative product idea and success.

The ASME IShow is meant to inspire students to be product innovators and entrepreneurs. It provides a platform for top collegiate teams to compete for seed funding in order to further the development of their product and business. Teams must display technical creativity and prove that they have a sustainable business model to a judging panel of successful innovators, industry experts, venture capitalists, and intellectual property specialists.

Nonspec produces low cost expandable and adjusting prosthetic limbs for children in developing nations.  Their technology is currently patent pending. Nonspec applied to the ASME IShow in February and became a top ten finalist. Yesterday they achieved 1^st place in this rigorous IShow competition.

In one short year (since winning the $5,000 award at the 1^st Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge on April 15, 2013) Nonspec has achieved the following awards:

• Campus Wide DifferenceMaker Award, $5,000
• 2nd Place at Commencement Pitch, $1,000
• Top 10 College Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine
• IAPD Plastics Application Design Award, $1,000 (but taking PR instead of $)
• Moo Grand Prix Small Business Award, $11,000 plus $1,000 for materials
• NCIIA E-Team Grant Stage 1, $5,000
• Design News Engineer to Watch 2014, Jonathan de Alderete
• ASME top ten for the Innovation Showcase
• AME IShow 1^st Place Award, $25,000

To stay up to date on the DifferenceMaker Program and its creative teams please follow DMs on twitter @Difference_UML and visit www.facebook.com/umldifferencemaker.

The 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge was held on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. The poster reception took place from 5–6 p.m. with the pitch competition & awards from 6–9 p.m. This event was held in the Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, Atrium on North Campus. 42 teams pitched in the Preliminary Pitch-Off Event on April 4^th and the 13 teams who made it through were featured at this 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge.

The evening began with poster presentations by the 13 finalist teams, as well as student teams who participated in the Preliminary Pitch-Off and wanted a chance to win a “Fan Favorite” prize. The 13 finalist teams then presented a series of 5 minute rocket pitches to a panel of 8 alumni judges for a chance to share in $35,000 in prizes. These entrepreneurial UMass student teams competed and shared their ventures and all received a portion of the $35,000 to help further their projects. This event attracted over 135 students, alumni, faculty, staff, community members and entrepreneurs.

We would like to thank all of the judges for helping make this event a great success:

 Final Judges-April 15, 2014

Jim Regan
John Pulichino
Mark Forziati
Jack Wilson
Mike Morin
Don LaTorre
Tricia Keefe
Amy Hoey

We would like to thank our sponsors for helping us make a difference: 

• Digital Credit Union-Corporate Sponsor
• Joseph C. Day Chancellor’s Fund for Institutional Priorities
• Joseph P. Donahue Charitable Foundation
• Mitchell Kertzman Endowed Discretionary Fund
• Francis L. McKone Chancellor’s Discretionary Endowment Fund
• Pernick Chancellor’s Endowed Discretionary Fund
• Spinola Angel Investment Fund for Entrepreneurship
• Jack Wilson Endowed Presidential Entrepreneurship Award Fund

Congratulations to the 2014 DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge $35K Winners!!!

Please visit www.uml.edu/differencemaker to learn more!

DifferenceMaker^TM held its 2014 Preliminary Pitch-Off on Friday April 4^th from 2-6pm. 42 student teams pitched their innovative ideas making this event a great success! These teams were categorized into 6 groups depending on their projects topic. These categories included IT/Software/Apps, Healthcare/Medical Devices/Well-being, Technology/Energy/Environment, Community/Non-profit, Consumer Products and Education Innovations.  These 6 groups each contained 7 team projects that pitched to a panel of 4 judges simultaneously utilizing 6 UMass Lowell rooms. These rooms included DifferenceMaker Central, Lydon Library Quiet Study, Lydon Library Computer Lab, Saab Emerging Technology and Innovation Center Room 245, 345 and 445.

The 24 UMass Lowell Alumni judges that dedicated themselves to this event were:

The Preliminary Pitch-Off event began at 2pm in the Saab Emerging Technology and Innovation Center with registration, networking and food. The event concluded around 6pm with the announcement of the 12 finalists that will be moving on to the 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge being held on Tuesday, April 15^th from 5-9pm (Register here).

Congratulations to the Finalist Teams:

Nerdonyx: Nerdonyx is a place where theory meets application. This team is helping to encourage anyone who wants to be an engineer or scientist to pursue their dream.

S.imulated A.ction T.esting: A gaming option for S.A.T. testing for students who have testing anxiety.

Prevention’s Possible: The mission of this project is to use creative mediums and personal experience to reach today’s youth with the expectation that WE CAN prevent tragic outcomes!

SOS: Support Our Students: This Campus Community Shop at UMass Lowell would be a centrally located resource for students of low-income or those in need of assistance. It would also serve as a resource center for community engagement, for credit service placements and volunteer opportunities in the area.

Chat UML: Chat UML, a non-profit, will reach those in need of emotional help through a dedicated website where participants will chat with a Chat UML volunteer about what ever issue they feel a need to. We hope to assist people before their situation escalates and becomes a crisis.

iHand: The iHand is a concept integrating retinal scanning technology into a full arm, shoulder to fingertips, prosthetic.

BioBubbler:  The BioBubbler is made from indigenous material and does not require chemicals or electricity to use. It is a slow sand filtration system that eliminates bacteria in water by absorption, predation, natural death, and oxygen depletion.

OTTOnomous Technology: OTTOnomous Technology is a novel soltuion for replacing camshsfts in car engines with electro-mechanical actuators.

Treehouse: Treehouse is a website & phone application that connects friends with plans, events, and small businesses nearby.

ZHOOM: ZHOOM is a mobile application that improves the dining experience and service in restaurants. The features of ZHOOM include an online menu, mobile ordering functionality and payment system and customer reviews.

Fresh Beets: Fresh Beets is a food truck and music venue that unites three discrete areas that the Greater Lowell community values highly into one vehicle of change. By combining food, music and education, Fresh Beets will turn any street corner, stake park, festival, or parking lot in Lowell into a total experience which feeds the mind, body and soul.

TutorTrack: TutorTrack is a mobile application that makes it easy for tutors to track, add, and edit their time slots and for students to subscribe a book a time slot.

Termagen®/ TermaGreen: Termagen is our waste heat recovery solutions company that has innovated the heat recovery mechanism known as the organ rankine cycle. We have innovated the design of this machine to make a significant difference in its operations.

• This team was the winner of the 2013 DCU Innovation Contest with their project called Autocredit, a banking application. They have chosen to pitch their other project, TermaGreen in the finals instead of Autocredit.

These 13 teams will be presenting a 5 minute rocket pitch to a panel of alumni judges for a chance to share in $35,000 in prizes and services. In addition, a “fan favorite” prize will be awarded to the team with the best poster. The 2^nd Annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge will take place on Tuesday, April 15^th from 5-9pm in the Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center. If you are interested in attending this event please register.

DifferenceMaker^TM held its forth workshop event last night, on Wednesday March 5^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. Over 40 students were in attendance! This workshop taught DifferenceMaker students how to identify all the resources needed to further their projects and ideas.

The night began with networking, pizza and soda. Then Professor Chad Montrie, from the College of Fine Arts Humanities and Social Sciences engaged the student audience through an interactive PowerPoint presentation that included group brainstorming activities along the way. This presentation, as well as the open discussion layout of this workshop allowed students to uncover the resources needed for their specific projects. This included funding, team members, specialists, physical space, software and more.  At the end of this workshop students were broken into teams to brainstorm every resource needed for a specific project. Those teams then presented to the student audience and received feedback.

To end the night Professor Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development presented a sample 3 minute rocket pitch. This pitch was an example of what is expected of each student team at the Preliminary Pitch-off and Final Idea Challenge events.

If you could not make it to this workshop, please view the DifferenceMaker resource page where all workshop materials will be posted for your convenience within 24-48 hours after each event. In addition, pitch coaching will be taking place on March 24^th and 25^th. Each DifferenceMaker applicant will be receiving an email to schedule a time for coaching. For more information regarding the DifferenceMaker Program, please visit www.uml.edu/differencemaker or email us: differencemaker@uml.edu.