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.聽

DifferenceMakers By the Numbers

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

Meet the DifferenceMakers

UMass Lowell Image
BioBubbler '14
DifferenceMakers

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.

DifferenceMaker is an extremely valuable resource that helped our idea become more of a reality.
Read More 杏吧原创 BioBubbler 
Project Starfish is an effective, non-invasive, and cost-effective prosthetic hand for people with disabilities.
Project Starfish
DifferenceMakers

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

DifferenceMaker has so many resources available to students which has really helped our project.
Read More 杏吧原创 Project Starfish 
Team ZENYAI pitching their idea to the audience and judges at the 2024 $50,000 Idea Challenge.
ZENYAI
DifferenceMakers

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.

ZENYAI is 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.
Read More 杏吧原创 ZENYAI 
George Le and Peter Maitland onstage with Steve Tello, Holly Butler and their 2018 Idea Challenge Campus-wide DifferenceMaker award for Iron Legion
Iron Legion
DifferenceMakers

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.

One of the problems we see is that police have a lack of situational awareness when responding to critical incidents.
Read More 杏吧原创 Iron Legion 
One of the members HOPPERS team holding a microphone and speaking in front of blue UMass Lowell backdrop.
Hoppers
DifferenceMakers

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

Hoppers was designed to help children build social skills and problem solving skills.
Read More 杏吧原创 Hoppers