UMD CELEBRATES YEAR OF INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

by Alana Carchedi, UMD Right Now

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – In the spirit of National Entrepreneurs' Day and Global Entrepreneurship Week, the University of Maryland is celebrating its great successes in innovation and entrepreneurship over the past year.

From incredible student feats and fearless competitors, to game-changing technology advancements and a unique set of collaborative partnerships, UMD has a lot to boast about its ongoing list of accomplishments in innovation and entrepreneurship.

"University of Maryland President Wallace Loh has elevated innovation and entrepreneurship to the highest levels campus-wide," says Dean Chang, UMD's associate vice president for innovation and entrepreneurship. "What better way to acknowledge Global Entrepreneurship Week and National Entrepreneurs' Day than to recap some of UMD's finest student, faculty, and institutional highlights in innovation and entrepreneurship from this past year."

Here is a sampling of what the university has accomplished in innovation and entrepreneurship in only one year:

• UMD doctoral student Shweta Gaonkar was one of 15 exceptional students from across the countryhonored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Emerging Scholars Program for her significant contributions to research in entrepreneurship.
• The Gamera human-powered helicopter team, comprised of students from the A. James Clark School of Engineering, officially had its Aug. 28, 2012 flight certified as a world record of 65.1 seconds by The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), also known as The World Air Sports Federation.
• Valerie Sherry, a UMD Master of Architecture candidate, was one of only 21 students from universities nationwide, and the first-ever UMD student, to be honored with the University Innovation Fellowship by the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter).
• UMD was recognized as the top public school in the U.S. and ranked second overall for tech entrepreneurship, according to the newly released 2013 StartEngine College Index, as reported in the Silicon Valley publication PandoDaily. The Princeton Review ranked UMD No. 15 for its undergraduate entrepreneurship program and No. 16 for its graduate entrepreneurship program, up eight spots from the 2013 rankings.
• A group of UMD students won the inaugural U.S. Major League Hacking (MLH) Championship, beating out Rutgers, long-time hackathon heavyweights MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Michigan and Stanford, and more than 100 other schools.
• UMD launched the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a signature initiative to infuse the university with a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across all colleges and curriculum.
• The UMD-led DC Innovation Corps (I-Corps), a National Science Foundation-backed program aimed at translating the region's vibrant research community into successful startups and licensed technologies,kicked off its first two regional cohorts of teams of inventors and entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., and at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md.
• UMD's College of Arts and Humanities announced an agreement with former Ravens cornerback and NFL Players Association President Domonique Foxworth '04, and his wife, Ashley Manning Foxworth, to launch Foxworth Creative Enterprise Grants. Their gift of $150,000 will fund a three-year pilot program intended to encourage the inclusion of the arts and humanities in developing solutions to some of society's most pressing issues.
• UMD alum and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank worked with the Robert H. Smith School of Business and Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship to make the annual Cupid's Cup a national competition.

To view a full list of UMD's accomplishments in innovation and entrepreneurship over the past year from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, MTECH, the Center for Social Value Creation, the Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, and other campus partners, click here. To learn more about innovation at the University of Maryland, visit www.innovation.umd.edu.