Meet the DifferenceMakers

Ariel Shramko is growing food for Earth and beyond.

Tom Stranberg rounded out his business degree with co-ops at the Boston Federal Reserve and Wayfair.

Developing an independent messaging service and leveraging a corresponding new cryptocurrency.

Indoor Hydroponic System ensures an optimal environment for plants.

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

Developing a device to sense when toddlers are about to have a nocturnal asthma attack.

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

A social media marketing co-op at financial firm MFS taught Nicole Resendes what goes into running corporate accounts.

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.

Create more financial stability and less frustration about finances by educating people on how to best use their money.

As she begins her career at Fidelity, Yeaharne Hout sees how transformative her UML experience has been.

Assessing and correcting rotational misalignments between the pelvis and thoracic spine.

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

Richard Juknavorian ’98 volunteers online and in person to support students. He raises money for scholarships, mentors students and serves as a judge at symposiums and events.

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

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

AFED solves foot pain while also correcting posture.

With an unbridled passion for learning, Sammy Santana is pursuing his numerous interests through the BLA program.

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

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

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

Working to develop an efficient solar powered drone.

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

An SMS Lifeline and smartphone application to prevent relapses in substance abuse.

Developing a robot tour guide to solve the problems of understaffing and poor customer service.

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

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

Developing a velcro piece that attaches to a garment and acts in the same way zippers do and can be used one-handed.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Helping bring together all entrepreneurs and creatives alike.

Organizes important documents in one workspace and allows users to simply tailor their resume for each job application.

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.

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

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

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.

Playable Therapy connects video games and physical therapy.

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

Developing an open-source software to protect user data privacy.

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

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.

This smart outlet device will save children’s lives.

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.

StockToMe is the first stock opinion community, where anybody can post an opinion about a stock.

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.

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.

Maddie Gear’s favorable first impression of UML steered her to a marketing co-op position at CarGurus.

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

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

Developing software to those who struggle with traditional communication methods to express feelings and achieve a higher level of emotional connection with whom they are speaking to.

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

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

Votecational is a non-bias informational platform, which allows voters to receive crucial information regarding elections.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

A “Robot for the Visually Impaired” (RAVI) to help assist in navigating daily life for people with visual impairments.

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

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

Developing a way to use uses high-voltage plasma to find contaminants using spectroscopy.

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.

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

Empowering the filmmakers of tomorrow by educating them through real-world experiences.

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.

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

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.

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

UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association (UML JSA) is a student organization that aspires to promote greater awareness of Japanese culture throughout the University of Massachusetts Lowell community.

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

An interactive educational experience that introduces people to some of the most famous minority inventions and inventors.

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

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

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

A functional textile fabric company, which is eco-friendly and will assist in agricultural and horticultural means.

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

Sandi DeRuntz invented ZipperBuddy, an aid for people with disabilities, through an interdisciplinary class and DifferenceMaker.

Supporting mental health services with an education program to help children affected by the genocide in Rwanda.

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.

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

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.

Developing a program to automate order-taking for coffee chains.

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.

An affordable device that integrates with permanently mounted security window bars, allowing removal in an emergency.

Vertical green walls reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen levels.

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

Jonathan Aguilar ’21 started a 3D printing company as an undergrad that he now runs at the Haverhill Innovation Hub.

ThermoEXA reduces energy costs and is aiding the environment.

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.

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

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

Learn a new language via a virtual reality platform.

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.

The Vital Sensing Patch is a remote, all in one vitals monitoring device, that will be affordable to consumers and usable from anywhere.

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

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.

Hoppers was designed to help children build social skills and problem solving skills.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

A summer co-op job with the DifferenceMaker program gave Nick Jarek a wider lens on his future career.

Taking preventive actions by alerting athletes when they possibly experienced trauma to the head.

App that keeps track and notifies Muslims when it is time to pray.

An innovative way to harness and use hydrogen energy.

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.

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

ConnectKnee strives to accurately track the recovery of a patient with a knee injury, while saving time and money.

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.

Tendren is a wristband that monitors a patient's vitals while they are in the hospital waiting room.

Masela Dentures creates a low cost alternative to expensive dentures.

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

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.

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

MyGrow Fabrix is an environmentally friendly solution when growing crops.

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.

A series of mentors helped Cleidir Mendes thrive at UML — and land a job at Fidelity Investments.

Drawn to UML by the DifferenceMaker program, business major Cameron Famiglietti is now paid to help market it.

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.

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.

Jeurys Santiago credits his entrepreneurship classes and experiences with helping him launch his networking and marketing company, Minds With Purpose.

Working to create a product that enhances safety in EV vehicles and prevents EV fires from starting.

Taking the challenge out of finding the correct information regarding rent in your area.