Create your own path. Be the driver of your future career. Combine your passion for creativity or desire to create change with your work in the classroom. Inspire others with your creative work or solutions to real world problems.

What are entrepreneurial and creative endeavors?

Students learn to set their own course by having experiences in early stage start-ups, advancing ideas to solve real world problems, or create artistic, written or performance-based projects. 

DifferenceMakers By the Numbers

  • $5M
    raised by teams
  • 40
    companies formed by teams
  • 11
    Number of teams patents filed or issued

Meet the DifferenceMakers

Team Next Gen Testing posing for a picture with Brian Rist and Holly Lalos after receiving an award.
Next Gen Testing
DifferenceMakers

Developing a solution that consists of an impurity concentrator and a reverse osmosis filter to detect and localize the impurities in water.

Next Gen Testing is developing a solution that consists of an impurity concentrator and a reverse osmosis filter to detect and localize the impurities in water.
Read More About Next Gen Testing 
UMass Lowell Image
PointStick '13
DifferenceMakers

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.

PointStick gives tactile and kinesthetic feedback to patients for both correct spinal alignment and breathing mechanics.
Read More About PointStick 
Team Leader, Alexander Frawley, Business Administration student smiling for the camera.
VieVest
DifferenceMakers

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

“VieVest is a creative design that will protect athletes during weight lifting workouts.”
Read More About VieVest 
One of the members AMARA team holding a microphone and speaking in front of blue UMass Lowell backdrop.
Amara
DifferenceMakers

Seeking to solve the problem around social media and the mental health crisis.

Amara is seeking to solve the problem around social media and the mental health crisis.
Read More About Amara 
UMass Lowell Photo
MyGrow Fabrix
DifferenceMakers

MyGrow Fabrix is an environmentally friendly solution when growing crops.

MyGrow Fabrix is an environmentally friendly solution when growing crops.
Read More About MyGrow Fabrix