M2D2 $200K Challenge names 2025 contest winners. Company developing noninvasive device to measure brain pressure awarded top prize.

As the new director of the DifferenceMaker program, alum Richard Juknavorian ’98 is leveraging his experience in startups and venture capital to help students turn their creative ideas into sustainable businesses.

Students showcased innovative solutions to real-world problems at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s annual Engineering Prototyping competition, with winning projects addressing classroom feedback, adjustable prosthetics, blast detection and human rights monitoring.

Biomedical engineering majors learned about internship and career opportunities with 18 medical technology and biotech companies at the annual “Student Employer Mashup,” co-hosted by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center and the student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Assoc. Prof. Kelsey Mangano of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences in the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences received a $900,000 grant from Harnessing Emerging Research Opportunities to Empower Soldiers (HEROES), a joint research and development initiative of UMass Lowell and the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (DEVCOM), to study the natural production of omega-3s.

More than a dozen UMass Lowell students attended the annual IDEA Con innovation conference at Boston University, where senior liberal arts major Sandi DeRuntz spoke about her ZipperBuddy venture.

Business alum Jeurys Santiago ’23 and computer science alum Nuno Mestre ’24 were named to the Boston Business Journal’s annual BostInno 25 Under 25 list, thanks in part to their winning DifferenceMaker projects at UML.

Now in its 10th year, the Manning School of Business’ Global Entrepreneurship Exchange (GE2) virtual summer workshop drew 270 students from 10 countries, culminating in a 27-team venture pitch competition.

Students can customize their studies to meet their personal interests and goals through the Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree. They choose two concentrations among 27 options in UML’s flexible, interdisciplinary program.

Be it in the classroom or on his LinkedIn videos, Manning School of Business adjunct faculty member Kevin Willett teaches students about the power of networking, entrepreneurship and perseverance.

Manning School of Business Assoc. Dean Amit Deokar shared his AI expertise with nearly 80 local business leaders during his recent talk, “Leveraging Generative AI: Opportunities and Challenges in the New Era of Work.” It was the inaugural event of a new Business Leaders Roundtable series hosted by UMass Lowell, Enterprise Bank and the Middlesex 3 Coalition.

The inaugural Lowell High Idea Challenge, a business pitch competition held in collaboration with UMass Lowell’s Rist DifferenceMaker Institute and Project LEARN, provided high school students with hands-on entrepreneurial experience and mentorship from faculty and local business leaders.

Forty-seven students graduated with River Hawk Experience Distinction (RHED) cords this year, the most in the program’s six-year history. Students can earn a RHED credential in leadership, entrepreneurship, global engagement, community engagement or sustainability.

Meet all the winners of the 2024 Digital Equity Challenge pitch contest.

Ten students recently completed UMass Lowell’s Innovative Fellows Training (LIFT), a new program supported by a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging that is designed to diversify career opportunities for early-career scientists in the field of aging and aging-related diseases.

Six sustainability-focused entrepreneurs and startups from across the region competed in the third annual Clean Green Challenge at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub.

Mechanical engineering graduate student Joshua Landis ’22 took home the top prize at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s 12th annual $50,000 Idea Challenge with SparkCell Technologies, his fast and cost-effective way to detect problems in concrete structures.

Meet the finalists for iHub Haverhill's Digital Equity Challenge Pitch Contest.

The Robotics Club is looking to make a difference in people’s lives with its robotic guide dog invention, which the club has entered into the SICK $10K Challenge and the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s $50K Idea Challenge.

Proven Provisions, a business started by health sciences alum Christianto Putra ’16, ’21 and his wife, plastics engineering alumna Raissa Yona ’15, recently introduced its first gluten-free, high-protein waffle mix.

UMass Lowell alumni Louis Cirignano ’20, Khyteang Lim ’16, ’18 and Tatiana Tompkins ’21 are helping people save for vacations and other major purchases with their FAM Social Finance app.

A new interdisciplinary course, Adaptive Devices for Better Life, brings together students majoring in art and design, physical therapy and kinesiology, engineering and biology to create devices that assist disabled clients from the community.

Business alum Benjamin McEvoy ’21 has turned his DifferenceMaker project Benji Ball into a game that’s now being played in nearly 200 school districts in 41 states across the country.

Zipper Buddy, a clothing attachment that helps people with limited mobility to zipper their jacket, took the top prize at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s Francis College of Engineering Prototyping competition at University Crossing.

Bean Hub, an artificial intelligence solution to improve the mobile banking experience, took the top prize at the 11th annual DifferenceMaker DCU/Manning School of Business Innovation Contest.

Plastics engineering alum Cormac Hondros-McCarthy ’16 is developing a ropeless lobster fishing system, LiftLabs, to protect the endangered North American right whale and prevent the loss of fishing gear.

Forty students from Management Prof. Scott Latham’s Strategic Management classes attended the Barracuda Bowl in Boston, a health tech pitch competition co-hosted by UML’s Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center.

More than 100 Latino business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals recently gathered at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub Haverhill, a business incubator and coworking space, to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Three co-op students from the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute attended the 12th annual Deshpande Symposium on Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Higher Education in Scottsdale, Arizona, where they learned how to make the program more inviting to all UML students.

Five teams, including three from UMass Lowell, took part in the Innovation Hub’s inaugural Clean Green Challenge, a pitch contest focused on sustainability for entrepreneurs and startups from across the region.

The UMass Lowell Innovation Hub Haverhill held its 2nd Digital Equity Challenge pitch contest this week, awarding $10,000 in cash prizes to startups and non-profits for projects that create digital access and improve digital literacy in Essex County.

Catnap, a device to sense when toddlers are about to have a nocturnal asthma attack, won the top prize at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s 11th annual $50,000 Idea Challenge, held recently at University Crossing.

Haverhill High School students got an immersive experience in UMass Lowell as part of iHub Demo Day at the Harbor Place campus in Haverhill.

More than 20 Manning School of Business students and faculty members attended IDEA Con 2023, an innovation conference at Boston University where senior Jeurys Santiago spoke about his networking and marketing venture Minds With Purpose.

After four years of growth at UMass Lowell’s Innovation Hub in Haverhill, information technology and consulting company Uncommon Catalyst has “graduated” to its own office space — just two floors up at Harbor Place.

Catnap, a device designed to alert parents when their sleeping child is having an asthma attack, won the ninth annual DifferenceMaker Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition, held recently at University Crossing.

Solar Crowdfund, a platform that would let people invest money to fund large-scale solar projects, won the 10th annual DifferenceMaker Innovation Contest, sponsored by Digital Federal Credit Union and the Manning School of Business.

Assoc. Prof. of Finance William Johnson debated Prof. Emeritus Jack Wilson on the pros and cons of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology during an event hosted by the Global Entrepreneurship Exchange program and the Jack M. Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship.

Assoc. Prof. of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Michael Ciuchta received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to research the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem while teaching at a university in Madrid.

The Manning School of Business’ Global Entrepreneurship Exchange virtual summer workshop drew 530 students from 20 countries, culminating in a 13-team venture pitch competition.

ARTritech Digital Health, a startup that is developing a patch for continuous blood pressure monitoring, won UMass Lowell’s inaugural Sensor Challenge at the Innovation Hub.

A dozen Manning School of Business students shared their entrepreneurial ideas and networked with students from across the region at the Harvard Innovation Labs’ Cross-University Mixer.

UMass Lowell’s Innovation Hub in Haverhill hosted the Digital Equity Challenge, where entrepreneurs and nonprofits pitched their ideas and projects for increasing digital access and literacy in Essex County.

Amara, a social media platform designed to create a more positive experience for users, took top honors at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s 10th annual $50,000 Idea Challenge, held recently at Moloney Hall.

Local college-minded high school students discovered how UMass Lowell supports entrepreneurship, innovation and creative problem-solving during recent campus events hosted by the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute.

For many students, a bond with a professor, an advisor, a coach or another person on campus can make all the difference in their college experience and set them up for future success. We checked in with several River Hawks who talked about their mentors on campus and the impact they’ve had.

Students in Asst. Prof. Denise Dunlap’s New Product Development course gained pitching and presentation experience in a semester-ending Idea Showcase at Alumni Hall.

A device to assess the body’s core alignment and an app for buying and selling stock opinions took home top prizes at their respective Rist DifferenceMaker Institute engineering and business pitch contests at University Crossing.  

The Innovation Hub Haverhill hosted 21 students for its first Family Game Design day, teaching elementary-aged kids how to become budding game designers.

iHub welcomed CPA Janelle Gorman for a workshop on financial modeling and planning.

Students learned about internship opportunities at a dozen early-stage medical device and biotech startups during a networking event co-hosted by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) and the UML student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Alumni of UMass Lowell’s Rist DifferenceMaker Institute returned to campus to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the program, which has spun off 40 companies that have generated over $4 million in revenue.

As the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute celebrates its 10th anniversary, Director Holly Lalos discusses why there’s been a resurgence in entrepreneurship during the pandemic, and Assoc. Prof. Li Sun shares research on how new ventures can survive a crisis.

The Innovation Hub welcomed Kate Campbell, vice president of Advisory Services at York IE, for a workshop on Drumbeat Marketing.

The DifferenceMaker program has provided training, mentoring and other resources to UMass Lowell student entrepreneurs who wish to address social, environmental and economic problems in the community and world for 10 years.

Master of Science in Entrepreneurship students Lani Faith Gacula and Wynn Wiggins put their customer discovery and market research skills to work through the new I-Corps Intern Program.

Fresh Beets, the brainchild of adjunct music instructor Savanah Marshall ’13, ’16, served up a summer of music, street food and community education in downtown Lowell’s Kerouac Park.

Solomont School of Nursing faculty will soon assist with clinical trials on rapid COVID-19 tests that are being developed as part of a massive federal effort. Assoc. Prof. Ainat Koren is leading the initiative, which will deploy nurses and nursing students to existing testing sites to gather patient samples and data.

A total of 120 students from 14 countries learned about entrepreneurial concepts and worked in teams to build global venture plans during the Global Entrepreneurship Exchange program’s free, virtual summer workshop.

At DifferenceMaker Demo Day, the four biomedical engineering majors of Digital Life Prosthetics were among nine teams that showed off revamped pitches, thanks to a four-week summer boot camp. During the camp, the women of Digital Life got a chance to see the success of Rajia Abdelaziz '16 and use her inspiration to fuel their project.   

This feature story profiles Benjamin McEvoy, a business administration graduate who developed the lawn game Benji Ball through the DifferenceMaker program and is a 2021 Chancellor’s Medal for Community Service recipient.

Pitching to alumni judges “Shark Tank” style, 10 teams from across the university competed in the finale of a yearlong contest to conceive and bring to market solutions to social issues or everyday problems.

The reach of the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute extends well beyond the boundaries of the UML campus, and groups of area high school students recently met virtually to compete using ideas rooted largely in the ongoing pandemic.

Recent alumni from the Honors College say their honors experiences, from research with faculty to small seminars, have had a lasting impact, preparing them for advanced graduate studies and rewarding jobs.

Rock musicians and business tycoons aren't as different as one might think, said Rock & Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Greg Harris during a recent virtual panel with music academics, including UMass Lowell's Savanah Marshall and Alan Williams.

The Global Entrepreneurship Exchange program, in partnership with the Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education, held a five-week virtual professional development workshop for faculty and students from India and Cambodia.

In her new book “Wake Up Call: Lessons from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge for Nonprofit Social Media,” Assoc. Teaching Prof. Deborah Finch explores how smaller nonprofit organizations can leverage the power of platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Lowell-based invisaWear’s panic button jewelry, co-founded by UMass Lowell graduates Rajia Abdelaziz and Ray Hamilton, is now partnering with ADT, one of the most well-known national security companies, bringing together ADT’s mobile safety platform and invisaWear’s wearable safety devices. 

It was a cousin’s lacrosse injury that inspired Alyssa Mulry to dream up ConnectKnee, a brace that tracks a patient’s recovery time. And at the recent DifferenceMaker Francis College of Engineering finals, her team -- ConnectKnee -- topped 16 other teams for first place.

Senior business majors Amy Michelin and Craig Williams won the eighth annual Rist DifferenceMaker DCU/Manning School of Business Innovation Contest for their “Financial Freedom Program,” an online platform that presents financial literacy education to high school and college students in a game-like environment.

Assoc. Prof. of Management Beth Humberd examined why working women are being disproportionately impacted by the current “she-cession” and offered signs of hope, in a webinar hosted by the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub.

Three Haverhill entrepreneurs share their challenges and successes reopening their businesses during the pandemic.

At Biotech 2020, a weeklong virtual course co-presented recently by the Manning School of Business, 45 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers in health, science and medical programs from across the country learned how to transition to careers in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

More than 640 students and faculty from 23 countries participated in the Manning School of Business’ Global Entrepreneurship Exchange program, which pivoted to a one-week virtual session this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Once planned for Cleveland (where it will be in 2021), the Deshpande Symposium sidestepped the pandemic and went viral. And it was a hit, with loads of timely content.

Manning School of Business student Michael Hulen started his own face mask business, STATEMENT, last fall — nearly six months before the coronavirus pandemic made wearing a mask in public a requirement across much of the country.

Gov. Charlie Backer joined Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney for an afternoon visit to UMass Lowell's Fabric Discovery Center, which has received funding through the state Manufacturing Emergency Response Team to conduct testing of locally produced personal protective equipment.

UMass Lowell’s Fabric Discovery Center received $130,781 to buy PPE performance testing equipment. The public university is planning to screen N95 respirators, gowns and face masks and work with manufacturers to fix products that don’t pass the tests.

From his pioneering role in video conferencing software to his tenure as UMass president during the Great Recession, UML Distinguished Professor Jack Wilson provides a unique perspective on these uneasy times.

UMass Lowell Innovation Hub-based companies have developed some creative responses to address the COVID-19 crisis.

Graduate student Justin Simone pitches a gem during the eighth annual DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge, which was held online.

The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) has quickly shifted its focus to connect members of the life sciences innovation community with resources and funding opportunities to advance solutions for the coronavirus pandemic, from testing and detection to, ultimately, an effective vaccine.

The Innovation Hub Haverhill collaborated with a local video game design expert to host a 6-week video program for Haverhill High School students.

Over the course of a light, fun evening, UML students and others tried to sell an audience and a trio of judges products and services. Just one catch ... everyone learned what the business did at the same time.

The Innovation Hub Haverhill welcomed three distinguished women leaders for an important conversation about leadership, mentoring, and overcoming challenges to become successful.

Cash Forward, a project that proposes cash-back incentives from credit cards to be put into customers’ investment accounts, won the seventh annual Rist DifferenceMaker Innovation Contest, sponsored by Digital Federal Credit Union and the Manning School of Business.

The Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies, or CAPCaT, a joint operation between UMass Lowell and UMass Medical, is seeking more entrepreneurs to develop new technologies and medical devices designed to help patients with these conditions manage their well-being.

The UMass Lowell Innovation Hub in Haverhill, one of the university’s premier business incubators for the region’s entrepreneurs, has created a new membership option for technology-based startups.

They went, they conquered, they left. And in their dust were some top Boston universities. Ambulatory Innovation emerged atop the heap at the annual Beantown Throwdown pitch competition.

The UMass Lowell Labor Education Program explored how students can prepare for the future of work at “The Gig Economy, Automation and You,” a panel discussion featuring Assoc. Prof. of Management Scott Latham and Thomas Kochan, co-director of the MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research.

Erin Keaney, 29, co-founder and chief operating officer of Nonspec, shared stories of growing the company at a campus event that marked Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Week.

Robert Stringer, an expert on startup business culture, discussed his latest book, “Culture.com: How the Best Startups Make It Happen,” with students and faculty during a talk hosted by the Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship in the Manning School of Business.

The Jack M. Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship hosted the annual Chinese Management Scholars Community research workshop, an event that drew almost 50 Chinese scholars from 30 universities from around the world.

The UMass Lowell Innovation Hub Haverhill announces its fall Entrepreneur Development Series programming.

Each Thursday in June for five hours a day, members of nine DifferenceMaker teams refined, rebooted and reimagined the projects that earned them spots in summer boot camp.

Alum Erin Keaney of Nonspec is on a mission to make prosthetics affordable around the world -- and that means using medical-grade plastic.

The Global Entrepreneurship Exchange (GE2) program reached the 1,000-student milestone as 75 students and faculty from 12 countries visited campus for two weeks of multicultural collaboration designed to teach the fundamentals of launching a business.

Letter to the editor from Chancellor Jacquie Moloney and Lowell City Manager Eileen Donoghue touting Lowell's innovation economy.

Like Horsepower Technologies, CAIDE Systems got its start at the Innovation Hub at University of Massachusetts Lowell, an incubator for start-ups.

The Manning School of Business and the Jack M. Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship hosted the first-ever Biotech East, a weeklong course for Ph.D. students and postdocs in health, science and medical programs interested in discovering the commercial side of science.

The need to promote entrepreneurship among risk-averse millennials is a challenge facing colleges and universities across the country, according to Amy Nelson, CEO of Venture for America, speaking at the Deshpande Symposium.  

UMass Lowell, a pioneer in online and continuing education, earns high rankings for its excellent professors and up-to-the-minute programs. Now it’s integrating its online and on-campus graduate programs in a new Division of Graduate, Online and Professional Studies.

A game modified to make baseball more inclusive, created by a DifferenceMaker team on a winning streak, topped 10 student teams to take home the $6,000 Rist Campuswide DifferenceMaker award at the seventh annual Idea Challenge competition.

UMass Lowell announced today that it is expanding its student entrepreneurship program to honor one of its most successful graduates.

UMass Lowell recognized Kronos and Raytheon for their commitment to the success of the university with its first Preferred Partners honors.

The Manning Women in Business student organization co-sponsored “A Pitch of Her Own,” a women and innovation pitch contest held at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub.

The iHub monthly Entrepreneur Development Series helps entrepreneurs in the Greater Haverhill region access resources, gain valuable information, and grow their network -- leading to a successful startup or small business.

Invisawear CEO Rajia Abdelaziz originally hails from New Hampshire and invented the wearable safety device while attended college at UMass Lowell.

On an intensive, two-week study abroad trip to India, 13 undergraduate and graduate students learned about global entrepreneurship and innovation with the Manning School of Business’ Global Entrepreneurship Exchange program.

A team of first-year students rooted at UMass Lowell captured top honors and $5,000 in prize money at the first Hack Haverhill 24-hour hackathon competition, topping 14 other teams from colleges, high schools and the professional world.