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<br/>[[File:Stephen KenderSkender.JPGpng|thumb|Stephen Kender.JPG]]

<br/><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; font-size: small;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">'''S<span style="font-size:smaller;">TEPHEN</span> K<span style="font-size:smaller;">ENDER&nbsp;</span>'''</span></span></span><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#000033;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">is a sophomore Plastics Engineering student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell; he is curreand an agent of change in his community</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.4;">ntly studying Plastics Engineering with a focus in Biomedical Engineering and Prosthetics. Stephen has kept himself busy during his first year in college. He is a member of the Pre-Law Society's Mock Trial team, has created a giving kindness initiative on his campus, and has won multiple awards at entrepreneurial competitions for his creation ofventure,&nbsp;</span></span>[http://www.lowellsunimpactivesports.com/todaysheadlines/ci_28763742/their-game-plan-armoring-athletes#ixzz3l9xUdvTy <span style="color:#000064;">KE<span style="font-size:smaller;">N</span>DERS Athletic Body ArmorImpactive Sports</span>]<span style="color:#000033;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">. An Eagle Scout, he frequently volunteers his time as an "Open Space Steward" in his hometown of Chelmsford, MA, keeping public property in good condition at no cost to the town.</span></span></span> <span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#000033;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">In his first few years at UMass Lowell, Stephen has made many connections within the university and with industry professionals, and have put a lot of time and effort into being a leader in various entrepreneurship initiatives on campus. Last spring, he introduced Hawkathon, a $25,000 hackathon that was first of its kind at the university, which saw almost 100 students from across the Northeast building incredible innovations in a 24-hour time-span. This year, Hawkathon has partnered with MIT Hacking Medicine and the Massachusetts eHealth Institute to put on a digital health hackathon, and it is expected to be even more impactful to the students, the community, and the digital health industry.</span></span></span>

<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#000033;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">In the past few years Stephen has had the privilege to work with many industry professionals in order to better his skills in engineering techniques and entrepreneurship. He was chosen to be a research intern at MIT Lincoln Laboratory twice, and while there gained valuable professional experience in machini</span></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);">ng and fabrication.</span></span> <span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#000033;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">His experiences inside and outside the classroom have built him into the person he is today, with a heart for innovation and a mind for engineering. He put this enthusiasm into his inventionventure, KEnDERS Athletic Body ArmorImpactive Sports, a novel sports equipment project designed to withstand higher impacts and reduce the costs (and risks) of playing sports. In a few months he and his twin sisters raised almost $5,000 from university-sponsored competitions, and they are currently in the process of testing their prototypes.</span></span></span></span>

<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#000033;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">From He joined the University Innovation Fellows program in fall of 2015. In early June 2016, he hopes helped organize the first-ever student track of the Deshpande Symposium, where a national network of entrepreneurial-minded students and officials gathered to learn about ways to developinnovate higher education. A week later, improve uponhe was honored with the opportunity to speak about space design at a workshop at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, where he pitched his research and spread skills in innovation and entrepreneurship. It will provide an exceptional networking opportunity for himexperiences to 120 people from all over the world. As a representative of UMass Lowell, he hopes to bring back as much as he can in order to engage students in the process spread of innovation. After graduating, he hopes to become a biomedical engineer, working to design thinking throughout his campus and develop the next generation of prosthetic devicescommunity.</span></span></span></span>

<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#000033;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">In his free time, Stephen enjoys likes designing in 2- and 3-dimensions, as well as playing a variety of casual sports. He </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">likes mathematical phenomenaenjoys talking your ear off about plastics engineering, beach daysoff due to weather, and has recently taken up a telescope hobby to feed his addiction to space&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);">exploration.</span></span>