We transform ideas into companies, empowering students to lead with impact.
This collegiate program harnesses students' passion, energy, and talent, turning them into the driving force for solving real-world problems and creating new ventures.
Our annual multi-university competitions are the cornerstone of xFoundry's mission to address specific grand challenges within our defined domains. Each competition features:
At xFoundry, we provide a comprehensive Resource Matrix designed to support student teams throughout the Xperience competition and beyond. This dynamic ecosystem equips participants with:
The most innovative solutions often emerge at the intersection of diverse fields, so we intentionally combine these perspectives to prepare students to ensure we tackle grand challenges from every angle.
The ultimate goal of our competitions is to launch ventures that directly address identified grand challenges. This approach:
Competitions serve as a powerful vehicle for solving grand challenges by fostering innovation, encouraging diverse approaches, and motivating participants to push boundaries in pursuit of impactful solutions.
For every dollar invested in a competition, there's a potential return of $3.50 in value created, showcasing the financial efficacy of these initiatives1.
The competitive atmosphere stimulates more innovative and out-of-the-box thinking among participants, driving significant advancements in problem-solving1.
Competitions can lead to solutions being developed five times faster than traditional R&D approaches, enhancing the speed of innovation2.
The collaborative effort of multiple teams addressing the same challenge significantly increases the chances of breakthrough solutions. This effect is amplified in competitions where diverse approaches can converge on a common problem3.
xFoundry was proudly launched at the University of Maryland, one of the top five universities in the U.S. for entrepreneurship and innovation.
xFoundry was proudly launched at the University of Maryland, one of the top five universities in the U.S. for entrepreneurship and innovation. UMD’s mission to tackle grand challenges through collaboration, research, and education makes it the perfect home for xFoundry.
UMD’s strategic focus on addressing global challenges aligns with xFoundry’s mission to inspire student innovation. Our close ties to UMD’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and resources like the E. A. Fernandez IDEA Factory amplifies our impact.