2024 Final Awards
Congratulations to UMass Lowell's 2024 DifferenceMaker $50K Idea Challenge Winners!
Prize categories and winners are as follows:
- Rist Campus-Wide DifferenceMaker (Sponsored by Kim and Brian Rist ’77, Manning School of Business)
- Commitment to a Sustainable Environment (Sponsored by Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy)
- Jack M. Wilson First to Market
- Sutherland Innovative Technology Solution (Sponsored by Andrew Sutherland ‘94, Manning School of Business)
- Contribution to a Healthier Lifestyle (Sponsored by Enterprise Bank)
- Significant Social Impact (Sponsored by Joy Tong Women in Business)
- Honorable Mentions
- Fan Favorite
Rist Campus-Wide DifferenceMaker (Sponsored by Kim and Brian Rist '77, Manning School of Business), $6,000 Rist
SparkCell Technologies - A portable device that can measure the health of cement structures in a more efficient and affordable manner.
- Joshua Landis - Graduate, Mechanical Engineering
Commitment to a Sustainable Environment (Sponsored by Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy), $4,000 environment
Next Gen Testing - An invention that increases the concentration of impurities in water to make cheaper test kits for harmful substances such as PFAs.
- Levon Markosyan - Undergraduate, Computer Science
Jack. M. Wilson First Product to Market Award, $4,000 market
EduX - An AI scheduling system that provides a comprehensive and personalized schedule that considers not only course availability but other factors such as students' academic goals, learning styles and outside commitments.
- Ahmed Ibreljic - Graduate, Electrical Engineering
- Daniel Maienza - Graduate, Electrical Engineering
- Joseph Nguyen - Undergraduate. Computer Science
Sutherland Innovative Technology Solution (Sponsored by Andrew Sutherland '94, Manning School of Business), $4,000 innovative
EV Guardian - A product that is installed directly with electric batteries that deploys automatically when a fire is detected.
- Abdullah Jasim - Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Amanda Mello - Undergraduate, Civil Engineering
Contribution to a Healthier Lifestyle, $4,000 (Sponsored by Enterprise Bank) healthy
ZipperBuddy - An innovative clothing device designed to aid individuals facing dressing challenges by transforming conventional zippers into user friendly one-handed accessible closures.
- Sandi DeRuntz - Undergraduate, Liberal Arts
- Valerie Heath - Undergraduate, Marketing & Entrepreneurship
Significant Social Impact, $4,000 (Sponsored by Joy Tong Women in Business) significant
ZENYAI - AI sound software that creates a soundscape to foster emotional growth, intelligence and connection.
- Saicharan Muduiraj Banda - Graduate, Computer Science
- Arun Kumar Coimbatore Dada - Graduate, Computer Science
- Julia Marino - Undergraduate, Finance & Marketing
- Oluwatomisin Oladunjoye - Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Michael Reppucci - Undergraduate, Accounting
- Palak Sharma - Undergraduate, Computer Science
Honorable Mentions, $2,000 honorable
DifferenceMaker expresses gratitude to Reddy Godula '93, Francis College of Engineering, for partial sponsorship.
BeanHub - An AI system that automates drive-throughs to enhances convenience for both customers and employees.
- Aiman Baig - Graduate, Computer Science
- Anirban Dasgupta - Undergraduate, Business Administration
- Ibrahim Haroon - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Emir Kaplan - Undergraduate, Bioinformatics
- Mohammad Khan - Undergraduate, Electrical Engineering
- Shafaat Osmani - Undergraduate, Computer Science
RAVI (Robot to Aid the Visually Impaired) - A seeing eye robot for the visually impaired that is a more affordable and convenient alternative to seeing eye dogs with safety features and navigation functionality.
- Jacob Breen - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Daniel Kusmaul - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Trevor Landurand - Graduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Ian McLeod
- Alexander Nunes - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Sriram Krishnamoorthy
Sober Solutions - An app to aid in addiction recovery with a "Lifeline" feature where users can press a button to receive a randomly generated activity when they feel like relapsing along with and SMS to a designated support contact.
- John Carozza - Undergraduate, Business Administration
- Zachary Richard - Undergraduate, Business Administration
Socket Tech Solutions - A device that creates a sub-network that allows users to lockdown existing smart home devices with enhanced security features.
- Hayden Dolan - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Tyler Fanuele - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Coleman Nee - Undergraduate, Computer Science & Cybersecurity
- Caleb Oakley - Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Sarah O'Meara - Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering
- James O'Sullivan - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Nishanth Potturu - Undergraduate, Computer Science
- Devansh Sethia - Graduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Justin Tarnowski - Undergraduate, Computer Science
Fan Favorite, $1,000 fan
TurtleTours - A robot that can process images/objects, speak, navigate designated areas and use the elevator between floors to be a top tour guide.
- Myron Chee - Graduate, Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology
- Vulindsky Fanfan - Graduate, Computer Engineering
- Michael Fisher - Graduate, Computer Engineering
- Trevor Landurand - Graduate, Mechanical Engineering
- Nathan Uhunsere - Graduate, Computer Engineering