Priorities:UMass Lowell Student Priorities

Overview- A Campus on the Move

The University of Massachusetts Lowell Innovation and Entrepreneurship Landscape Canvas is full of opportunities. The UMass Lowell is growing at a high rate, and we are moving along these opportunity lines in order to achieve even better results than ever before. UMass Lowell has been evolving in every aspect: Upgraded classrooms, libraries and labs; new and renovated student living and activity spaces; and enhanced parking facilities are a few items on the list of what has been updated and changed throughout the past decade of campus improvement.

UMass Lowell's entrepreneurial culture is budding and many changes are already in the works. The faculty and administration at the University of Massachusetts Lowell are supportive of the movement and want to embrace the economic developments that are possible for students, the school, and the city of Lowell. Programs and organizations have been put into place to give us a great head start, but there is still more to come from our university.

Our strategic plan will incorporate the promotion and growth of what has already begun to grow a reputation on campus (DifferenceMaker, Hawk Hatch, and other opportunities), the development of new space, and the organization and funding for a design challenge to give students innovative and entrepreneurial experience as well as help our university's surrounding community.

Strategy #1: Promote and Support Current Entrepreneurial Programs 

The following are already on campus but need further promoting to improve our entrepreneurial mindset culture

DifferenceMaker™  Program

About DifferenceMaker™: 

The DifferenceMaker™ Program sponsors specific events and activities that support students in solving big problems through innovation and entrepreneurship. The Program is highly experiential by offering students a series of workshops that they can engage in to better understand innovation, entrepreneurship and launching a start-up of their interest.

Students of all majors and disciplines are welcome to join this Program and make a difference at UMass Lowell, in the community or in the world through innovative and entrepreneurial action. These DifferenceMaker™ projects include interdisciplinary student teams from all majors and skill sets. 

 Goals of DifferenceMaker™: 

·      Introduce all UMass students to creative problem solving, innovation and entrepreneurship

·      Accelerate purpose in each students education

·      Connect current students to alumni experience

·      Encourage a social responsibility ethos

Strategy #2: "The Mill" & Design Challenge

Following are some ideas of plans that we want to begin to roll out this summer & beyond

 The Mill

• The history of Lowell has provided us with a storyline that is completely engulfed in disruptive and innovative thinking.
• The Industrial Revolution began in Lowell, and the history and mills that are here to remind us should be used as a way to inspire innovative thinking

The concept would provide maker space:

• The history of Lowell has provided us with a storyline that is completely engulfed in disruptive and innovative thinking.
• The Industrial Revolution began in Lowell, and the history and mills that are here to remind us should be used as a way to inspire innovative thinking 
• If we could transform a room that is within the mills into a design center, with whiteboards and new tools as well as old machinary from that time era, to generate creativity.
• We would need to find funding and space to renovate.
• This would allow students to see their surrounding environment and things that they could improve and change because it is slightly off campus.
• The goal would be to give students a more open space that they can go and brainstorm and break things so they could potentially create more.

Design Challenge

• Description: The Design Challenge would be developed to help UMass Lowell students recognize current inefficiencies within Lowell's infrastructure.  This will not only help our current economic development of Lowell but it will give students real world experience moving forward. We would hopefully gain a grant to help fund this, and run multiple challenges a year.
• Milestones:
  • Reach out to current graduate students- Fall 2013 through Spring 2014
  • Formulate a list of interested graduate students- Fall 2013 through Spring 2014
  • Create a forum and central space for these graduate students- Summer 2014
  • Host webinar sessions on goals of the program- Summer 2014
  • Re-evaluate interested graduate students- Fall 2014
  • Afford benefits and rewards to committed graduate students- Fall 2014
  • Generate awareness of program to current students- Spring 2015
  • Marketing resources- Spring 2015
  • Connect students with graduate students- Fall 2015

Related Links

University of Massachusetts Lowell

University Innovation Fellows:

Ana Gouveia

James Abdallah

Kevin Desjardins

Jacob Hulme