MSCRF Black TransparentWhat do you get when you combine a networking happy hour for STEM researchers, an engaging expert panel discussion and a host of exciting STEM inventions? The answer is one exciting event: the Maryland Innovation Initiative’s Pop-up at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) and Innovate Maryland: Invention of the Year Awards!

TEDCO and the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) were on hand to sponsor Innovate Maryland’s Invention of the Year Awards, held at The Hall on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. Innovation was all around, encompassed by the various finalists and the Invention of the Year winner: a solar-powered system that uses all-natural, partly plant-based materials to extract drinkable water from the toughest environments.

Maryland is home to many talented researchers — in fact, it has the highest concentration of Ph.D.s of any state in the country, while also ranking #1 for its technology and science workforce. The MII recognizes the commercial possibilities coming out of the state’s creative faculty and supports these innovators by serving as a catalyst to both spur exciting startup projects at Maryland’s research universities and ignite an entrepreneurial mindset among faculty. Both of these elements were on

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