Meet the DifferenceMakers

Project Starfish is an effective, non-invasive, and cost-effective prosthetic hand for people with disabilities.

ZHUUM is a mobile application platform aimed at helping owners across the food service industry drive out inefficiencies and reduce wait times.

KEnDERS Body Armor is a new design for sports equipment using shear-thickening fluids.

OTTOnomous Technology is a novel solution for replacing camshafts in car engines with electro-mechanical actuators.

eNABLE is an international organization that makes 3D printed prosthetic hands for children in need.

Happy Heart Cart is a program that provides advanced therapeutic and holistic practices to improve patient stays in adult hospitals

Veteran's QRF is a web platform that will simplify the application process for service connected disability benefits.

Terminus will solve the problem of food insecurity in the USA and beyond by by creating a system of multiple, stackable units that can grow food anywhere.

ClassRoots is an organization striving to facilitate connections between students in the classroom and to share this with their instructors.

A website and phone application that connects people with plans, events and small businesses nearby.

TopaCan is a product development company whose first product turns any empty can into an environmentally friendly way to dispose of cigarette butts.

Apple a Day is a fun product that makes the process of taking pills more efficient.

Solar Electric Vehicles allow people to travel by the energy of the sun.

Indoor Hydroponic System ensures an optimal environment for plants.

OmniSense is performance tracking for athletes, giving users a low cost option of tracking lifting metrics.

Teach A Pal, otherwise known as T.A.P., is a team dedicated to helping student success through peer involvement.

UML Green Roofs is attempting to provide secure green outdoor locations for the students at UMass Lowell.

Inspired by Assoc. Teaching Prof. Deborah Finch, Adam Basma published his first novel for his senior Honors College project.

Word Builder is a fun toy that helps build a reading foundation for children.

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.

ECG For Me is dedicated to stopping the harsh and fatal effects of an unexpected cardiac event with an integration software for a wearable device that detects underlying heart conditions before they are expected to occur.

Guardian is a sensor platform that can attach to any commercially available drone for use in search and rescue operations.

At the DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge, Healthy Habits won first place in the category “Significant Social Impact,” and was awarded $3,500 to further implement their idea.

Smart Escape’s mission is to lead people to safety during a fire evacuation.

JamFuze is a tool that helps both artists and producers to find each other and become more connected for potential success.

Happing Pinning is an effective, effortless device that clips clothing together.

NavLens will help those who are visually impaired by providing navigation in these unfamiliar areas as well as supplemental audio-visual cues to avoid obstacles.

Security Top is a reusable bottle cap designed for the purpose of increasing the prevention of contaminates entering a bottled beverage.

The Hydraulic Walker utilizes hydraulics, allowing for the legs to be quickly adjusted, so that it can be used on stairs.

Personalized Learning is a team that ensures students have the education that’s best for them in their college career by optimizing every student’s academic path.

After a three minute rocket pitch to a panel of alumni judges Philip Colangelo's Robotic Feeding Arm was awarded first place in the “Innovative Technology” category, $3,500 award.

Mass Heartbeat is an organization focused on screening children and young adults for heart conditions and anomalies to ensure they seek treatment before any undiscovered issues occur.

Clot Catch is developing a new design to replace the current inferior vena cava (IVC) clot filters that are currently on the market.

WordPro is a vocabulary builder aimed at high school students learning a second language.

AFED solves foot pain while also correcting posture.

Low Income Community Homework Center plans to improve test scores and the graduation rate of high school students.

RE-VIVE aims to lessen the fatalities associated with the opioid epidemic. The product consists of a wearable auto-injection system to administer Naloxone to those suffering from a drug overdose.

SmartEater is an Automated Diet Monitoring (ADM) System designed to help people manage their dietary behavior.

VieVest is a creative design that will protect athletes during weight lifting workouts.

NerdOnyx is a web-based learning tool that will provide articles, videos and other resources to enhance the learning of engineering students and help bridge the gap between the classroom and the industry.

Mayday upon activation can reach all emergency contacts in just a tap.

invisaWear is a discrete wearable device that connects to a smart phone that sends an emergency alert to predetermined contacts when the wearer is in need.

Fresh Beets is a food truck and music venue based out of Lowell, Ma. that unites food, music, education, and revelry into one vehicle of change.

In the finals of the Idea Challenge the judges awarded PointStick, a product that gives tactile and kinesthetic feedback to patients for both correct spinal alignment and breathing mechanics, second place in the “First to Market” award category.

Nonspec participated in the first annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge where they received the prestigious title of “The Campus Wide DifferenceMaker” and the top award of $5,000.

The goal of Digital Life is to develop an affordable solution for those in need.

Spread the Love is an online platform that would consist of personalized lesson plans for struggling schools that cannot afford the resources that they need.

SASS, also known as Solo-Adventurer Safety System, provides reliable GPS tracking and communication with a timed checking system to make sure the adventurer is always safe.

An innovative way to harness and use hydrogen energy.

After an increase of violence and hate crimes on the Asian-American community, Tommy Vi created a fusion of Asian flavors with Italian machinery and technique to create a new version of gelato in hopes of brining people together.

Green Fertilizer technology aims to solve the problem of food insecurity in developing countries, like Uganda.

ETRALock is a team focused on helping individuals with physical limitations, get into their homes using smart locks with simple proximity activation.

USe Cart is a smart shopping cart that makes shopping faster and easier for customers, pushing self-checkout to a new level.

Support our Students (SOS) is a nonprofit organization that addresses the issue of hunger in the UMass Lowell community.

Masela Dentures creates a low cost alternative to expensive dentures.

BASH plans to create and implement a new waste management system for the city of Les Cayes, Haiti.

DEXTER is aiming to help reduce the costs financially and environmentally to fruit farms by improving the efficiency of spraying pesticides on farms, and to helping to reduce the financial strain that comes with dumping the pesticides over their crops.

Protected Pin is a software that randomly generates a new user PIN each time the banking app is accessed, creating safety and security for each user.

Breezy is a real-time air quality-monitoring device, which can be tracked through its cell phone application or online website.

QBell is a mobile application that improves upon the current nursing call bell system.

VotED works to put the knowledge back into the user’s hands and create a platform that gives all of the information necessary on upcoming candidates and elections.

Vertical green walls reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen levels.

YPG will aid the COVID-19 pandemic, while also helping the environment.

Bar Scene is a mobile app that serves as a one stop shop for all things night-life and entertainment.

Lowell Sprouts is an organization that utilizes school gardens as a way to educate middle school children about the importance of sustainable, organic agriculture. Lowell Sprouts entered the DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge and won first place in the “Sustainable Environment” category, a $3,500 award.

EV SmarT wants to create a charge sharing platform, where electric vehicle users can open up their home charging stations to other users, extending their ride times past what they are able to obtain today.

Playable Therapy connects video games and physical therapy.

Love of the Game will unite universities and people with physical and cognitive disabilities through sports.

Buddies Without Borders aims to bridge the gap between domestic students and international students.

TermaGreen is a thermodynamic generator that captures heat and converts it into energy that can be reused.

Expect is an application that facilitates communication between referring facilities/emergency medical services and accepting inpatient/emergency units.

Playtlist is dedicated to helping those with dietary restrictions work around their food restrictions when eating out.

Operation250 is an online platform consisting of an educational website, engaging videos and a large social media presence, focused on educating both young adolescents, parents and educators on how to prevent radical extremist recruitment.

Ambulatory Innovations brings the outdoors in, with a mat that will allow physical therapists to treat their patients’ deficits throughout the body, from the musculoskeletal system to sensory systems.

Over Terrain Tactical Scuba Personnel Delivery Service crafted a solution to New England’s unforgiving terrain by creating a device that would either assist by moving the diver’s gear for them, or even moving the diver into the dive spot that they need to reach.

Iron Legion, the 2018 Campus-wide DifferenceMaker, is a team aiming to expand the effective use of drone technology in emergency response, particularly with police departments.

Bio-Printing with Multimedia Curriculum is a cost effective 3D bio-printer for comprehensive and effective use in teaching the emerging science of 3D bio-printing.

Wonder Wheel is a novel device that will aid wheel chair users.

The TrueFIT design can be used to help employees in various industries, like construction, healthcare, and more.

Cyborg is a hybrid, cost effective, musical instrument, which has the ability to transform any object into a touch sensitive musical instrument.

Grab a Bite received "Fan Favorite" at the Inaugural DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge, pushing them to the final round where they won the title “First to Market” and were awarded $3,500 by the panel of judges.

DigiBank is a software solution that aims to rid the world of pocket change.

Benji Ball, the 2019 Capus-wide DifferenceMaker, is a baseball training tool for children that is composed of a bat and ball with the ball having multiple sides, each side showing the different outcome of an at bat.