Savannah Marshall studied community music at UMass Lowell and is a DifferenceMaker student. She won First to Market, a $4,000 prize at the 2014 Idea Challenge. 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.

Savannah wanted to do research and learn more about the food truck industry so she used some of her winning funds to travel to Texas where there is a vibrant food truck community.  She has spent 6 months learning about the industry, inside and out. She is returning to Lowell in May and will begin implementing her creative business with the skills and knowledge she acquired in Texas.

Here are some photos and captions from her trip thus far:

Newspaper! This is an article that ran in the Daily Texan, a newspaper put out by the University of Texas at Austin, describing the new truck on campus, featuring yours truly. 🙂

Inspiration – I would pass by this incredible graffiti on my bike ride home from work every day when I lived at my first apartment. I still pass it sometimes. The sun would hit it in a really special way… and it was like a sign that I was on the right path with my aspirations.

Happy FRYday! – We sell vegan burgers and fries primarily at Arlo’s, and one Friday night at the beginning of a shift I made myself some fries and put this picture on social media to get some Austin friends to visit the truck… and make my northern friends a little jealous.

Brainstorming Sesh – One day I was out for several hours on my bike, enjoying nature, and enjoying some quality “me time.” Though, to be honest, the first few weeks of my trip were loaded with “me time” when I didn’t have too many friends or hours at work yet. I tried to stay positive about this time, and on this afternoon I found myself sprawled out at a Starbucks table I found along the bike trail, with coffee and a snack to fuel my furious pen hand. It made me so pleased to realize that I want to work on my project intrinsically.

My First Bike – I’ve been biking every day here in Austin because I don’t have a car. Such a blessing! It’s been really fun to ride everywhere, and while it’s definitely a hassle sometimes and certainly tiring, I love the simplicity, not buying gas, and love the environmental sustainability bikes promote. This bike was lent to me by my friend James! I’ve recently returned it and am on a bike my boyfriend bought on his visit down here. He found it to be cheaper to spend $100 and buy one than to rent one for several days, so I lucked out again with that!

Arlos Burger – This is a bac’n cheeze burger from Arlos! SO GOOD

Nature – Just one example of how beautiful it is down here! I found a lot of peace here at Ladybird Lake, a body of water that reminds me a lot of the Merrimack!

Research – Got a few books in the mail one morning in February. Made great companions to my cup of coffee. I still carry one or two around in my backpack everyday!

Thank you for sharing Savannah and keep up the great work! We are excited to hear from you when you return in May.

Congratulations to the semifinalists for the 2016 Idea Challenge!

▪ AM (American Muslim) Women Magazine
▪ BankBR
▪ Bio_Catheter
▪ Biodigestor-Aided Solutions in Haiti (BASH)
▪ Biophlox
▪ Design of an efficient solar tablet for educational usage in a Nomadic population
▪ eNABLE Lowell
▪ Engineers for a Sustainable World: Sustainable Smoothie Cart
▪ Expect
▪ EZRemoval
▪ Get Girls Going
▪ Happy Heart Cart
▪ INSTA-SCAB
▪ invisaWear
▪ Kinder Minds
▪ LoreBooks
▪ MuV
▪ OmniSense
▪ Portable IV Fluid Warmers
▪ Quick Response Security
▪ SecureSurf
▪ Security Top
▪ SmartEater
▪ SyncWasher
▪ Teflon-Coated Ear Tubes
▪ Textrade
▪ TopaCan
▪ Veterans QRF
▪ WordPro

The semifinalist teams will compete on April 1st in the Preliminary Pitch-off! The winners of that competition will move onto the final pitch of the 2016 $35,000 Idea Challenge on April 13th! Both pitch contests will be held in Moloney Hall at University Crossing at 5p.m. Be sure to come out and support the semifinalist and finalist teams!

Our final 2016 workshop was held on Thursday, February 25th, in the Makerspace, Falmouth 102. Director of the DifferenceMaker Program, Holly Butler, introduced guest speaker for the night Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. Professor Tello spoke about the ways in which pitches are developed and presented to judges during the Preliminary Pitch-off and Idea Challenge. He even demonstrated a rocket pitch of his own! Students enjoyed pizza while developing their key pitch points and ideas.

Don’t forget to check on the Semi-Finalist announcement on Tuesday, March 8th! Catch up on all of our workshops and events on our resource page!

Our third workshop on developing business models was held on Tuesday, February 23rd from 5:30-7:30p.m. in the Makerspace, Falmouth 102. Holly Butler, Director of the DifferenceMaker program introduced Tom O’Donnell, Director of the Innovation Hub. While students enjoyed pizza, Tom spoke about the factors involved in developing business models and how to conquer potential struggles during the process.

Stay in the loop and catch up on updates on our resource page! Also, look for the announcement of the Semi-Finalists on Tuesday, March 8th!

The second workshop of the 2016 series, Assessing Opportunities and Value Propoistions, was held on Tuesday, February 16th from 5:30-7:30p.m. in the Makerspace, Falmouth 102 on North Campus. Holly Butler, Director of the DifferenceMaker program introduced guest speaker Tom O’Donnell, Director of the Innovation Hub. Approximately 30 students attended the event. During the workshop, students enjoyed pizza and soda while working on an interactive activity to explore the opportunities associated with their projects and each project’s value proposition. Also in attendance were two DifferenceMaker faculty fellows, Deb Finch from the Manning School of Business and Stephen Johnston from the Francis College of Engineering. Tom O’Donnell wrapped up the workshop but showcasing two prototypes developed from ideas and pulled the workshop together by emphasizing the importance of knowing a project’s opportunity and what value that project brings to potential customers.

The workshop materials will be on our resource page within the next few days. Feel free to review these materials if you could not attend or need a refresher!

Please attend our last two workshops next week!

February 23 – Workshop 3: Developing Business Models, Guest Speaker Tom O’Donnell
February 25 – Workshop 4: Delivering Your Rocket Pitch, Guest Speaker Steven Tello

All workshops will be held from 5:30-7:30p.m., in the Makerspace, Falmouth 102 on North Campus. Pizza and soda will be served!

Our first workshop of the semester was held on Thursday, February 11, in the Makerspace located in Falmouth Hall 102, on North Campus! During the workshop students collaborated to identify the problems that they are interested in solving. Guest speaker Nancy Saucier, Director of New Venture Development, spoke about the process of identifying the roots of the problems being solved. Students worked together to dig deeper into their potential problems and develop a greater understanding of what exactly it is that they are trying to solve with their DifferenceMaker projects. Students participated in an activity where they were able to brainstorm and discuss their ideas with each other.

Don’t forget to join us for the rest of our Workshop Series!

All workshops will be held from 5:30-7:30p.m., in the Makerspace, Falmouth 102 on North Campus.

February 16 – Workshop 2: Assessing Opportunities and Value Propositions
February 23 – Workshop 3: Developing Business Models
February 25 – Workshop 4: Delivering Your Rocket Pitch

DifferenceMaker’s 2016 Idea Challenge Kick-off and Idea Hack was held on Thursday, January 28^th in Moloney Hall at University Crossing. We were expecting around 50 guests and nearly 100 attended! This included students, faculty, and staff. The event turnout was amazing! Guests enjoyed refreshments while networking with other attendees from the six UMass Lowell colleges.

Professor Steve Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney kicked off the evening by introducing the DifferenceMaker Program, as well as the 2016 4th  Annual $35K Idea Challenge. Following the introduction, Holly Butler, Entrepreneurial Initiative Project Director, interviewed a panel of real-life DifferenceMaker teams. The two teams that participated in the panel were Playable Therapy, represented by Mark McGrotty and Hannah St. George and Zhuum, represented by Andy Lau and Darin Eidens. Attendees also had an opportunity to ask the student panel their own questions.

Next, guests broke off into groups that were formed on problems they wanted to solve. At the beginning of the event, each student wrote down a problem they wanted to solve. These problems were then categorized into similar groups. These groups focused on specific areas such as education, innovative technologies, global warming and climate change, and more. In these groups, team members worked together to clearly identify problems. Then each group had the chance to pitch their problems. Next, students began to think about possible solutions to solve those problems. Most students stated that they wanted to apply to the Idea Challenge with these problems and ideas.

The Kick-off and Idea Hack was a wonderful event where creative minds worked together on real-world problems.

Announcement: Please apply to the 2016 Idea Challenge by this Friday, February 5th!

Engineering Prototyping Competition

The Prototyping Competition took place on December 1^st, from 3-9 in the Saab ETIC Atrium on North Campus. There were three rounds, including an initial judging round, a public voting round, and the final judging round. The final judges for the competition were Bill Geary, partner at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., Chad Lafrance, Business Unit Manager at Texas Instruments Inc., Udi Laska, partner at REINS Management, Lynne Samuelson, Senior Scientist at U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center, Ram Sudireddy, Senior Vice President, IC Product Development at International Rectifier, and Marc Thomas, engineer at New Power India.

The winners from the competition are below:

People’s Choice Award of $250 – EZ Removal
An automated snow removal system for solar panels.
Team Members: Hamid Mohseni (Renewable Solar Engineering, M.Sc.), Soma Hajian (Renewable Solar Engineering, M.Sc.), Norman Hallissey (Renewable Solar Engineering, M.Sc.), and Peyman Poozesh (Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D.).

Third Place Award of $500 – invisaWear Technologies
A wearable safety device system connected to Bluetooth.
Team Members: Raymond Hamilton (Electrical Engineering) Rajia Abdelaziz (Electrical Engineering/Computer Science), and Erin Graceffa (Electrical Engineering)

Second Place Award of $750 – SolHydrAir
An individual solar/wind/water turbine powered charger.
Team Members: William Tate (Mechanical Engineering), Sanjeev Mehta (Mechanical Engineering), Marcel Belperron (Mechanical Engineering), and Joseph Suy (Mechanical Engineering)

First Place Award of $1,000 – Lorebooks
A Fanfiction website where authors can earn scholarships for their work.
Team Member: Alan Foster (Mechanical Engineering)

Graduate Level Winner of $1,000 – Top-A-Can
A product to help safely dispose of tobacco products.
Team Members: Justin Lozier (Mechanical Engineering), Jonathan Benefiel (Mechanical Engineering), and Wilmer Ventura (Business)

DCU/MSB Innovation Contest

Digital Federal Credit Union and the Manning School of Business partnered with DifferenceMaker once again to put on this year’s Innovation Contest. The event was held on December 2^nd, in the Saab ETIC Atrium on North Campus from 6-9PM. Interim Dean of the Manning School of Business welcomed the event’s attendees. The judges for the contest were Jim Regan, President and CEO of Digital Federal Credit Union, Bill Jacobson, CEO of Workbar, and Leticia Porter, Director of Graduate Programs at the Manning School of Business.

First Place Award of $500 per team member – Jonny and David, Banking BR
A mobile application that allows users to track, manage, and monitor their spending.
Team Members: Jonathan Burgin and David Rocca

Second Place Award of $250 per team member – Let’s Talk Money
A podcast that teaches listeners the basics of managing personal finances.
Team Members: Kreg Kaminski, Kevin Kwiatek, and Peter Larsen

FAHSS Creative Venture Competition

The FAHSS Creative Venture Competition took place on December 4th, at O’Leary Library Auditorium. The judges for the contest were Glenn Morgan, co-owner and a partner at Skyworld Interactive, John J. Ford III, the principal and owner of JF3 Consulting, and Danielle McFadden, the CEO of the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce.

First Place Award of $5,000 – Get Girls Going
A program to empower teenage girls through mentorship, education, and wellness.
Team Members: Nana Younge (Plastics Engineering) and Matilda Matovu (Political Science and Biology)

Finalists Awards of $250 per team: 

The 104 Ticket
A low-cost, highly user-friendly subscription ticket service that delivers high quality live classical music access and experiences on a reliable basis.
Team Member: Nicholas Quigley (Music Business)

Textrade
An online-based service that allows students to trade, rent, and donate textbooks.
Team Members: Brittany Morris (Business, MIS), Christopher Tribu (Business Marketing), Daniel Santos (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), and Nina Petropoulos (English)

AM Women Magazine
An online lifestyle, fashion magazine for American Muslim women.
Team Members: Ayah Awadaliah (English) and Sherin Aygun (Psychology)

BMX-Out Heroin
A program that will provide bus/train tickets to use to transport candidates for substance treatment to existing help facilities in the area.
Team Members: Patty Burris (Legal Studies and Writing), Emily Catanzano (Education and Psychology), and Hannah Judkins (Environmental Studies and Gender Studies)

This week DifferenceMaker held its first ever Global Idea Connection! The event was held from 9:00am to 11:00am at DifferenceMaker Central. UMass Lowell students attended the event and Skyped with students from B.V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology (BVB) in Hubli, India.

The Idea Connection was organized by Ashwin Mehta, Lecturer at UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business, and Nitin Kulkarni, an Associate Professor in BVB’s Department of Management Studies. The two universities have a study abroad program where students from the U.S. visit Hubli and vice-versa. The Idea Connection fits hand-in-hand with the study abroad program, of which the idea is to promote a global thought process when approaching innovation and entrepreneurship.

During the Idea Connection, students were encouraged to share their entrepreneurial ideas and share with the other college where they needed help. The goal is to create global and interdisciplinary teams for a pitch contest, or for the students to team up and participate in DifferenceMaker’s 2016 Idea Challenge. Photos from the event are below.

On the evening of Wednesday, October 21^st DifferenceMaker held its first Student and Alumni Mixer. Roughly 130 people were in attendance, including about 50 students, and about 80 faculty, staff, and alumni. The event was a way for alumni who fund the program, serve as mentors to student teams, and who have interest in the program to meet and network with students and DifferenceMaker teams.

The evening began with networking and continued with a student panel and an alumni panel. Student teams, Biobubbler, Love of the Game, and Nonspec, answered questions about their experience with the DifferenceMaker program and the current status of their projects. Afterward, alumni took the stage sharing their insight on the success of the program.

Rachel Paquette from DifferenceMaker Team Biobubbler.

The night concluded with the keynote speaker, Ron Insana. Insana is an Analyst and Commentator at CNBC. He enlightened the crowd with his input on the United States’ current economic status and some input on the business world.

Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor for Entrepreneurhip and Economic Development, and Ron Insana, Senior Analyst and Commentator at CNBC.

Thank you to everyone who attended and to everyone who made the event such a success! To view all of the photos from the event, click here.