xFoundry brings students across disciplines together to tackle real challenges, build validated products, and develop the skills, judgment, and confidence that come from doing the work.
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NASA and the University System of Maryland have signed a five-year Space Act Agreement, and xFoundry is leading it. Our programs connect students at every USM institution to NASA's real technology challenges through the NEXPLORE Summit and the Horizons Challenge.
university students with access to NASA's problems
institutions and regional centers
xFoundry creates the programs and connections that bring students from every discipline together around consequential problems. They build, collaborate, and work with the rigor, pace, and stakes of the real world, gaining professional experience before they graduate.
Student teams dive into industry-defined focus areas, uncover unmet needs, and define a problem worth solving before anyone starts building. Finalists pitch at the NEXPLORE Summit, and the winning team receives $2,040 and sets the stage for the next Xperience competiton.
Over 12–18 months, multidisciplinary teams research, prototype, test, and develop their ideas, learning what it takes to build a product and a company from the ground up.
Xpand connects curated teams with focused challenges from industry, government, and prize partners. Over 6–12 months, teams develop a solution, with the opportunity to earn a contract, investment, or prize, or to launch a company.
Teams that qualify through Xperience or Xpand get up to six months of executive, legal, technical, and pitch support to strengthen their MVP and build a company investors can back.
‍Partner with us to launch scalable ventures that solve global grand challenges.
