To give students an incredible edge in their future careers, xFoundry was founded at the University of Maryland, to create programs built entirely around action. Over the course of our programs, students from different majors form diverse teams and build solutions for real-world challenges.
Our students graduate with a unique professional network, undeniable work experience, and real-world solutions they built from scratch.
Students identify and pitch innovative, grand challenges based on set focus areas. Finalists pitch live at the NEXPLORE Summit, competing for a $2,040 prize and the chance to to set the target for the following Xperience competition.
Student teams tackle grand challenges by building investment-grade MVPs, competing for the chance to launch their venture and secure up to $2M in investment.
Xpand connects student and faculty teams directly with industry-sponsored challenges. Teams tackle highly specific problems alongside corporate partners, offering a fast-paced, focused path to building solutions with real commercial outcomes.
What's next
22
Terp participants
$325K
in funding
Xcelerate
We give winning teams the operational support, R&D resources, and investor networks they need to transform their ideas into market-ready, funded ventures.
Won the School Safety Xperience and entered Xcelerate to secure investment and scale their venture.
Xpand
Xcelerate
Team Crossfire
Reached the XPRIZE Wildfire semifinals and advanced to Xcelerate to power their launch.
Xperience
Team Weapon Watch
Claimed second place in the School Safety Xperience.
Horizons challenge
Team Phylon
Took the finals stage at the Horizons Challenge to pitch their bold ideas to industry leaders.
Horizons challenge
Team SpaceCoders
Stepped up as Horizons Challenge finalists, pitching their innovative challenges live on stage.
Xpand
Team Mosaic Garden
Won the Smart Living Canopy competition to secure the top spot.
We wanted to bring students from every discipline together, to create a 'disruptive collision'. xFoundry is the embodiment of that vision, where different perspectives come together to solve meaningful problems.
Darryll Pines, Ph.D.
President, University of Maryland
The xFoundry experience is about bringing people together across campus to develop transformational solutions to society's biggest problems.
Jennifer Rice, Ph.D.
Provost, University of Maryland, College Park
Welcome to the
APEX Lab
The Angel P. Bezos '69 APEX Lab (AI Prototyping for Edge Xperiments) is located in the E. A. Fernandez IDEA Factory at the University of Maryland and serves as a dedicated prototyping space for Terps participating in xFoundry programs. In the ApeX Lab, students use high-performance centralized and edge-computing hardware to prototype, test, and deploy real-world solutions. From developing AI models on advanced GPU systems to using hardware for autonomous inspection and mapping, the lab provides the on-site tools and infrastructure students need to build the next great company.
High-Performance AI Compute Tier
High-intensity hardware powered by Intel-donated dual-Xeon workstations alongside NVIDIA RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPUs, Gaudi 3 AI Accelerators, and DGX Spark deskside supercomputers.
ideal for
LLM Training • Digital Twins • Computer Vision
Edge Prototyping
Local deployment testing made simple. Our lab is equipped with Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition laptops, Khadas Mind AI PC kits with built-in NPUs, and the entire range of NVIDIA Jetson boards.
ideal for
On-device AI • Robotics • Energy-Efficient ML
Embodied Intelligence
Build applications that can see and interact with the real world using our enterprise-grade robotics and drones, which can generate deep telemetry, thermal diagnostics, and high-fidelity geospatial data.
To help your team map out system architectures, wireframe interfaces, and perfect your pitches for industry partners, Intel has equipped our space with an Interactive Flat Panel Display.
