As communication strategies continue to grow and evolve, DifferenceMaker’s main focus will be social media channels to keep you informed and engaged. These platforms allow us to share updates in real time and connect with our audience more directly.

Stay connected with DifferenceMaker here!

Thank you again for your interest and continued support. We look forward to further connecting with our audiences on social media.

Best regards,
The Rist DifferenceMaker Team

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Congratulations to the ten finalist teams!

• ACE Difference Makers: AI-powered personal assistant designed to help international students navigate university life.
• Bear Hugs: Amanda Pajak, Dilon Costa, and Aidan McGrail created Calming Hands, a customizable sensory glove for children. This innovative, compassionate solution helps promote comfort and emotional regulation.
• Comprehension Clicker: A simple handheld slider device that students can use during class to indicate their level of understanding.
• Fridgie: A mobile app that helps you manage your fridge and pantry effortlessly.
• iPrep: Camille LeBihan, Ponita Ty, and Mark Callan have built iPrep, an AI-powered platform that acts as a personal career coach, helping students navigate the complex and often overwhelming process of finding internships and jobs.

• MyHub: A platform that lets anyone build their own personal website with no coding required.
• Pawva: A wifi connected pet bed that tracks pet vitals by Jiya Panchal, Tanish Araveti, Owen O’Brien

• Sense Makers: Oscar Aliaga, Cintya Gajardo Vejar, and Bruce Lezana are developing I-Learn, a personalized, gamified AI-powered learning platform aimed at improving educational equity and student engagement.
• Shay G. Productions: The Caraïbes Connect’s vision is to become New England’s first-ever community event celebrating Caribbean culture
• Shine In Academy: Madhavi Tarugu is addressing learning gaps in high school education with Core Advantage SAT Prep, a program designed to support students who have fallen behind in math and language—providing a stronger foundation for future academic success.

Learn More About DifferenceMaker:  https://www.uml.edu/differencemaker/about/
Watch the Preliminary Pitch-off 2024 video on YouTube, here!

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Semi-finalist teams attended this session to learn about delivering their rocket pitch for the Preliminary Pitch-off on April 2nd. At this event, teams have a chance to advance to the $50,000 Idea Challenge Final event. The semi-finalist teams who will be pitching at the Preliminary Pitch-off are: 

ACE Difference Makers 

Bear Hugs 

Braille Ereader 

Comprehension Clicker 

Flix Toothpicks 

FreshStart 

Fridgie 

iPrep 

JC- Fit 

myHub 

Pawva Smart Pet Bed 

Pitch Pal 

ProVision.Ai 

RightsWatch 

SenseMakers 

Shay G Productions  

Shine in Academy  

Simple Cut 

SoundWaves 

UrbanX 

Vertical Solutions  

To start off the workshop, Rist DifferenceMaker Director , Richard Juknavorian provided a recap of the past workshop sessions, which addressed topics such as Identifying Problems, Assessing Opportunities and Value Proposition, and Developing Business Models.   

Then, Professor Cathy Levey opened and discussed the content that should be addressed during the DifferenceMaker pitch presentation: the problem, opportunity, solution, needed resources, as well as being prepared for judge questions. She also spoke about additional considerations to look out for during and after the rocket pitch session.  

She then showed videos of past teams, including Point Stick and BioBubbler pitching their idea so students would have an example to follow learning about what makes an effective pitch. This allowed students to compare what they just learned to an actual pitch presentation that occurred. Students can watch and learn from other past pitches that are on the DifferenceMaker YouTube page, which can be utilized while practicing for the Preliminary Pitch-off. 

To guide the students further, Professor Kevin Willett spoke about the challenge of presenting an idea. To tackle this, he discussed being confident and sharing your topic with lots of energy and passion. He also talked about having relevant pictures on each slide, as well as limiting the words per slide, which helps keep the audience engaged. 

Concluding the inspiring evening, DifferenceMaker Fellow David Vatalaro shared valuable insights and invited five teams to pitch their ideas. He then engaged the audience, asking for their thoughts on the pitches and how the experience boosted their confidence and preparedness for the big day. 

Thank you to everyone who attended Workshop 4! Good luck to all teams pitching at the Preliminary Pitch-off on April 2 at the O’Leary Library, Mezzanine. Register to support the student teams pitching for the Preliminary Pitch-off here. 

Additionally, the 2024 13th Annual DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge will take place on April 16 at University Crossing, Moloney Hall, Room 260. Register to attend the $50,000 Idea Challenge here. 

To revisit the topics discussed, watch our video, Spring Workshop Series 4: Delivering Your Rocket Pitch. 

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To kick off the night, Richard Juknavorian, Rist DifferenceMaker Director, welcomed everyone. Next, he provided students with information on submitting their Idea Plan, announcements for semi-finalists, and reminders to schedule a meeting for one-on-one coaching with mentors.

Richard Juknavorian started off by providing examples of companies such as Gillette, FedEx, Zipcar, and Pill Pack. Each are successful companies in their own way, all from various industries in today’s market. For example, Gillette makes their profit by selling cheap razor handles that go along with expensive, high quality razor blades that attach to them. This allows customers to stay loyal to their brand, as they need to continually purchase specific Gillette blades that fit the handle that they already own. He then introduced David Vatalaro, DifferenceMaker Fellow. 

David Vatalaro, went further in depth and explained the multiple components needed to have a successful business model. He discussed factors such as the new venture timeline and each component of the business model canvas, such as customer segments, value proposition, revenue streams, and more. This allowed students to think deeply about details that will drive their ideas to success in the real world. After the detailed lessons, students were encouraged to work on their business models and solutions. They utilized business model canvas poster boards and solution worksheets to assist with this process. A business model canvas glossary was also provided to each student to help refresh their memory on the information that was provided. The students also received an Idea Plan template, and their final Idea Plans are due on March 5th by 5 PM.

Thank you to everyone that joined DifferenceMaker for Workshop 3! If you are interested in learning how to further develop your project for the $50,000 Idea Challenge, recruiting new team members, and gaining new skills, please register for the final workshop this semester. Dinner will be served! 

Workshop 4 – Delivering Your Rocket Pitch, March 20^th

Questions? Email us at DifferenceMaker@uml.edu. 

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To start off the event, Rist DifferenceMaker Director, Richard Juknavorian opened by providing a brief recap of what occurred during the first workshop session, which highlighted Identifying problems. Then, he introduced the guest presenters for the night, which Included Professor Rae Mansfield, Honors College, and Professor Neil Shortland, College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

After the introduction, Professor Mansfield emphasized the importance of assessing opportunities before investing time and resources into a product. While our ideas may seem incredibly valuable to us, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will resonate with potential customers. She illustrated this with the example of pickle-flavored toothpaste. This highlights the necessity of market research, which helps determine whether an idea is truly. 

Then, Professor Shortland presented the importance of value propositions. A value proposition demonstrates how a potential solution provides more value than what competitors are currently offering. Students broke out into groups to work on their value propositions on large notepads, then were given the chance to work in a 1-on-1 setting with faculty fellows. 

After which, students were given time to write down their opportunities on the “target market opportunity” and “competition opportunity” worksheets.

Thank you to everyone that joined DifferenceMaker for Workshop 2!

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To start off, Richard Juknavorian, Rist DifferenceMaker Director, welcomed everyone. He provided a brief overview of the DifferenceMaker program, what to expect from the workshop series, and the agenda for the evening. He introduced the Faculty Fellows guest presenter: Professor Tom Wilkes, Kennedy College of Sciences. Joining them, Faculty Fellows John Palma and Cathy Levy were also present to offer guidance, helping students refine and develop their ideas throughout the session.

Firstly, Professor Wilkes showcased examples of problems presented by past DifferenceMaker student teams. Videos of their pitches were provided to give students clarity on how to move forward. For example, a team that was highlighted was the CAT Mat pitch, presented by students Katie Muise and Michelle Mailloux, both from the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. The problem they identified is the inability of patients to practice relearning how to walk after experiencing a medical issue. Going outside to do so isn’t the safest option, while staying indoors does not fully prepare patients to go back to the real-world.

This is an example of a team who worked diligently during their time at DifferenceMaker, as they ended up winning first place against teams such as Harvard and MIT during the Beantown Throwdown competition in 2019!

Then, a brainstorming activity took place where students were able to discuss the problems they are looking to solve with each other.

Afterwards, students presented their ideas to everyone. The problems included challenges with adapting to the resources available, international students not knowing the resources provided to them, students feeling unprepared for college and its various services, and a lack of awareness about resources across campus.

This allowed students to network with one another and gain new connections for potential teammates. Each person/group utilized the “DifferenceMaker Problem Toolkit Worksheet” to help with narrowing the specifics of the issue at hand.

Thank you to everyone that joined DifferenceMaker for Workshop 1!

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Then, Provost Joe Hartman spoke about the importance of solving problems and having a social impact. Then, he encouraged all attendees to apply to the $50,000 Idea Challenge.

Next, Rist DifferenceMaker Director Richard Juknavorian, introduced the DifferenceMaker program. He explained details for the 13th Annual $50,000 Idea Challenge taking place this semester. The 2025 DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge application Has been extended and is now due February 17 at 5 p.m.!

After the introductory presentation, the real-life DifferenceMaker Panel and Q&A session took place! The panel consisted of members from past DifferenceMaker teams who answered questions from Richard Juknavorian and shared their entrepreneurial experiences with DifferenceMaker. First up was Jacob Breen of RAVI, who won the 2024 Honorable Mention, a $2,000 award. The Q&A was then followed up with Deigo King of Quick Release Window Bars , who won the 2023 Honorable Mention, answered questions and provided advice to the student audience. The Panel session Q&A ended with Josh Landis of SparkCell Technologies, who won the 2024 Rist Campus-Wide DifferenceMaker, a $6,000 award.

Richard Juknavorian asked the panelists a series of questions which gave the student audience a better understanding of the requirements to be in the DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge and more information about their startups. The audience then got the chance to ask the panelists valuable questions.

Following the panel discussion, guest speaker Stephanie Roulic, Founder & CEO of Startup Boston, took the stage. She shared insights on the startup ecosystem and how students can leverage resources to turn their ideas into viable ventures. Stephanie emphasized the importance of networking, resilience, and taking advantage of opportunities like the DifferenceMaker program to gain hands-on experience in entrepreneurship. Her talk inspired students to think creatively and take the first steps toward launching their own businesses.

Following the Q&A, David Vatalaro, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow, led the students in the Idea Hack Activity to get students brainstorming potential ideas they could apply to the challenge. Students split into groups sat at tables labeled with specific industries that interested them.

The students started to brainstorm problems and then started to discuss possible solutions. They were able to collaborate with each other and with the DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellows. Towards the end of this activity, students shared their problems and solutions with everyone.

To close off this engaging event, Richard Juknavorian spoke about the next steps in getting involved in DifferenceMaker and participating in the $50,000 Idea Challenge.

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The twenty teams competing during the preliminary demonstration round were:

• Atrophists, team members Rohita Maddi, Mahmoud Mishal, Caitlin O’Brien, and Adam Attia
• Comprehensive Clicker, team member Jetrin Orenberg
• EdYou, team members Alexander Donnelly, Aaron King, Max Zarkou, and Christian Sobande
• Gem Mind, team members Negin Yazdani Motlagh and Elyas Irankhah
• JoltGuard, team members Casey Callahan, Charity Garabedian, Nora Fatimi, and Zoha Akram.
• Kallehpuck, team member Elyas Irankhah
• Pawva Smart Pet Bed, team members Owen O’Brien, Tanish Araveti, and Jiya Panchal
• Pitch Pal, team members Jack Ray and Brendan Clawson
• Pop it Prosthetics, team member Linda Neneh Jallow, Neytan Milioli, John Khoury, and Eleni Tekelis
• Rainforest Associates, team members Callum Hammill and Haydn Hammill
• RDZ, team members Abhiram Reddy Chepyala and Prathiba FrankFernando
• Remote Patrol, team member Michael McCarthy
• Rights Watch, team member Adam Warden
• Skinthesize, team members Sidney Luangrath, Lizberte Celestin, Steve Bui, and
  Kazuma Marquez
• Ultimate Foot Comfort, team members Dana Yousef, Alexander Masi, Tobechi Amakor, and Siya Patel
• Urban X, team members Vincent Studer and Jose Rosario
• Vertical Solutions, team members Nicholas LeBlanc, Christopher Coco, Molykim Srun, Alvin Yu, Zane Campbell, and Jacob Milligan

The prototype demonstration and idea pitching round was held from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. in the lobby of University Crossing. Each team had five minutes to present their product to a panel of preliminary judges, followed by a five-minute Q&A session. The preliminary judges were:

• Carol Devellian, President, Yeti Biomedical
• Dennis Gagne, Founder, C2C LLC
• Joe Hennessey, Vice President Manufacturing Quality & Technical Operations, Juniper Networks
• Ken Horton ’79, Francis College of Engineering, Founder, C2C
• Dan McCormick ’83,’91, Francis College of Engineering, Retired, Waters
• Leigh Sharrock, Senior Director, System Engineering, Brooks Automation

During the prototype demonstration round, the judges scored each team based on the problem that was being solved, the opportunity that it holds, prototype quality, resources/implementation needed, presentation effectiveness, and overall project. After seeing each team’s pitch and demonstrations, the preliminary judges deliberated on which teams would move forward for the final round.

The teams that moved onto the final competition were:

• Comprehensive Clicker, team member Jetrin Orenberg
• Pop it Prosthetics, team members Linda Neneh Jallow, Neytan Milioli, John Khoury, and Eleni Tekelis
• Rainforest Associates, team members Callum Hammill and Haydn Hammill
• Rights Watch, team member Adam Warden
• EdYou, team members Alexander Donnelly, Aaron King, Max Zarkou, and Christian Sobande

Meanwhile, the prototype public viewing was held from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. in the lobby of University Crossing. Event attendees which consisted of students, faculty, community, friends, and family each had five votes to disperse to the teams they liked the best. The team that had the most DifferenceMaker Dollars would be awarded the $500 Fan Favorite Award.

The Final Round Competition was held in Moloney Hall from 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. It began with opening remarks by Dean Sherwood. Next, the five finalist teams pitched their ideas on stage and demonstrated their prototype to the panel of final judges.

The judges during the final round were:

• Rajia Abdelaziz ‘2016, Francis College of Engineering, CEO and Co-Founder, invisaWear Technologies LLC
• Ray Hamilton,CTO, InvisaWear
• Steve Geyster,Medical Device Consultant
• Chad LaFrance,Retired, Business Operations and Engineering Manager, Texas Instruments

After all the presentations the final judges deliberated and selected the winners for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. Additionally, the People’s Choice votes were counted, and the winner of the People’s Choice award was announced. The final awards were:

• 1st Place: Comprehension Clicker, Jetrin Orenberg; $2,500 and automatically advances to the Rist DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge Preliminary Pitch-off in April 2025. Comprehension Clicker is an innovative classroom tool that revolutionizes student engagement by enabling real-time feedback during lessons. This device can also double as a classroom clicker, giving a quick way for educators to poll multiple choice answers.

• 2nd Place: Pop it Prosthetics, Eleni Tekelis, John Khoury, Linda Neneh Jallow, Neytan Milioli; $1,500. Pop it Prosthetics addresses the frequent need for replacement of lower limb prosthetics in children from ages 3 to 12 years old, providing more convenience.

• 3rd place: Rainforest Associates, Callum Hammill and Haydn Hammill;$1,000. Rainforest Associates is designing a medical device for military explosives training and other areas in which repeated explosions may occur (construction, mining, etc.).

• People’s Choice: RightsWatch, Adam Warden; $500. RightsWatch is working to develop real-time monitoring, predicting, and deterrence of human rights violations in the Middle East.

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event! 

View a video of the event: https://bit.ly/3BwDJFY

For additional information on the Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition: https://bit.ly/3DtnvxI

Interested in pitching an idea and getting funding? Applications for the 13th Annual $50,000 Idea Challenge  are open now – apply today!

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To kick off the event, Steve Tello, Interim Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute, UMass Lowell, gave opening remarks. Next, Provost Joe Hartman spoke about all that UMass Lowell has to offer in hopes to see some familiar faces next year. He then passed the stage to Gina Mustoe, teacher at Westford Academy, who shared inspiring words to the students about the importance of making a positive impact in the world by developing creative ideas. Next, Donna McFadden, Massachusetts DECA State Advisor, and Bobby Scott, Massachusetts DECA State Officer, gave a few words of inspiration regarding her journey and the High School Idea Challenge experience to the student teams. 

Next, Steve Tello, presented an overview of DifferenceMaker, sharing the benefits and opportunities the program offers.  

The judges were:

• Kim Carman, Teacher, Upper Cape Tech, Retired
• Cintya Gajardo-Véjar,  Professor, Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell
• Sandi DeRuntz, Founder, ZipperBuddy
• Joshua Landis, Founder, SparkCell Technologies
• Jacob Breen, Founder, RAVI

After the judge introductions, the event began. The audience was excited to hear the creative ideas from each high school student team. The schools competing include Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, Quincy High School, Groton Dunstable Regional, King Philip Regional High School (Wrentham, MA), Westford Academy, Weston High School, Nashoba Regional High School, and Chelmsford High School. Each pitching team had 5 minutes to present, followed by 5 minutes of judge Q&A. The judges deliberated after the presentations!

Congratulations to all teams that presented and won awards! 

1st place, $500 – Weston High School – “United Abilities” – a volunteer-based program that unites individuals with intellectual disabilities through arts and crafts.

2nd place, $300 – Chelmsford High School – “Mud Bud” – a handheld device designed to effectively clean the spikes on cross-country sneakers for better performance. 

3rd place, $200 – King Philip Regional High School – “Sole Saver” – interchangeable shoe soles for different sport surfaces.

After the presentations, lunch was served, and round-table mentor meetings took place with DifferenceMaker teams, Co-op students, UMass Lowell Business students and the high school teams. Each high school team had a 15-minute mentor session with the DifferenceMaker college students, in which they got the opportunity to speak with every mentor. 

Thank you to the past DifferenceMaker teams who volunteered their time to support and inspire the high school students: 

ZipperBuddy, Sandi DeRuntz

SparkCell Technologies, Joshua Landis

RAVI, Jacob Breen

Thank you to DECA Inc. and Donna McFadden, Massachusetts DECA State Advisor, for sponsoring the event prizes. Another thanks to all partnership schools and teachers involved in this collaboration. 

View a video of the event.

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Steve Tello, Interim Director, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute, and David Vatalaro, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow, Rist DifferenceMaker Institute, kicked off the event and thanked all the DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellows. Then, Provost Joe Hartman was introduced to speak about the program.

Next, Rist DifferenceMaker Co-ops, Nicholas Jarek and Erica Weser were introduced. Nicholas and Erica presented an overview of the program and spoke about the opportunities DifferenceMaker offers, such as team building, being paired with mentors, learning critical skills through events and workshops, and connecting with diverse students from various backgrounds. Past DifferenceMaker student team examples were also presented: Ambulatory Innovations, Benji Ball, and ZipperBuddy. 

Lastly, DifferenceMaker benefits and impact were presented, such as $10 million has been raised by past winning teams and 43 companies have been formed.

After Nicholas and Erica spoke, David Vatalaro, Rist DifferenceMaker Fellow, announced details regarding the Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition. This competition encourages students to work with a team to turn an idea into a product with any resources available – $100 is reimbursable for prototyping materials. Participants must be students at UMass Lowell and at least one member of the team must be from the Francis College of Engineering. Additionally, the team should have a faculty advisor from the Francis College of Engineering. The application registration opened on September 23, 2024, and will close on October 25, 2024, at 5 p.m. 

Concluding the announcement, David Vatalaro facilitated a fun, interactive, ideation activity. During the activity, each table was asked to write down problems each person was interested in solving. From there, each team discussed all individual problems and chose one to focus on for the remainder of the activity. Each person at the table then wrote down potential solutions to the proposed problem. Next, each team voted on which solution was the best or most creative. After that, the team members crafted models of their solutions with Legos. Each table had the opportunity to present their problem, solution, and Lego structure to the audience.

David Vatalaro closed out the event. Thank you to all students, faculty, alumni, and supporters who attended!

Learn more about the college competitions and apply today!

Applications opened Sept. 23.

Applications close Oct. 25 at 5 p.m.

To learn more about this event, watch the video!

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