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

CAT Mat team members Michelle Mailloux and Katherine Muise pose with Holly Butler and their Honorable Mention award
Ambulatory Innovations
DifferenceMakers

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.

We bring the outdoors inside, to get you back outside!
Read More About Ambulatory Innovations 
Jonathan Aguilar talking with two students at a desk
Jonathan Aguilar '21
Mechanical Engineering

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

It feels great to be able to apply what I learned in school in the real world.
Read More About Jonathan Aguilar 
 Team members posing for a photo with their trophy in hand at DifferenceMaker Central.
Green Fertilizer, Commitment to a Sustainable Environment
DifferenceMakers

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

“Green Fertilizer technology aims to solve the problem of food insecurity in developing countries, like Uganda.”
Read More About Green Fertilizer, Commitment to a Sustainable Environment 
Hannah West sharing her idea during one of DifferenceMaker's workshop series.
Living, Green Wall
DifferenceMakers

Vertical green walls reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen levels.

Vertical green walls reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen levels.
Read More About Living, Green Wall 
UMass Lowell Photo
Bright Future Generation
DifferenceMakers

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

Team Bright Future Generation is supporting mental health services with an education program to help children affected by the genocide in Rwanda.
Read More About Bright Future Generation