Our programs

Identify the Need.

Engineer the Solution.

Launch the Venture.

We offer students a deeply immersive, multidisciplinary learning experience to build trackable, career-transforming needed to address societal challenges through venture creation.

Three programs. One mission.

We provide the blueprint for multidisciplinary success, taking you from early research to venture launch.

Horizons Challenge

Define the problem

Students identify and pitch innovative, grand challenge based on set focus areas. Finalists pitch live at the NEXPLORE summit, and winning topics are awarded $2,040 and selected as the challenge for the next Xperience competition.

10 - 20 hours

Xperience

Solve the problem

Student teams tackle the selected challenge, collaborating acros disciplines to develop an investment-grade MVP. They compete for the chance to transform their ideas into a venture and secure up to $2M in investment.

15 - 18 months

Xcelerate

Launch the venture

Winning teams enter an accelerator to transform their ventures to investment-ready companies. Members take on roles as the product team and receive operational support, R&D resources, and investor networking to power their launch.

12 - 18 months

Competitions

Active
Upcoming
Past
Registration Open

Mental Health Xperience

Build a scalable solution to improve student mental health and engagement, centered around one of seven high-impact entry approaches. Secure up to $250K in an investment to launch your company.

Registration closes

Mar 26, 2026

investment Prize

Up to $250K

Finals

Apr 2027

Horizons Challenge II

Set the stage for future innovation and compete for the $2040 grand prize. Form your team, choose your focus area(s), and tell us why your topic deserves to be solved. Finalists pitch live in person for hundreds of industry experts at the NEXPLORE Summit. Teams can submit for multiple focus areas, with more chances to win.

Focus areas

01

Smart user interface

02

Performance prediction systems

03

Automated asset inspection

04

Adaptive learning tools
Prize

$2,040

Finals at nexplore summit

April 2027

Fall 2026 cohort

A new season of competition is just around the corner. Stay ready to showcase your talent and connect with peers.
Registration
Sep 01 - Nov 27 2026
submission deadline
Dec 19, 2026

Spring 2027 cohort

Look ahead to 2027; define your problem and gather your team early to make your mark in our Spring competition.
Registration
Dec 1, 2026 - Mar 1, 2027
Submission deadline
Mar 21, 2027
Registration Closed

School Safety Xperience

The competition focused on developing an affordable and automated solution for rapid detection and notification of school shooting events for K-12 schools and colleges.

Status

Awarded

Grand Prize

$250K

Finals

Sep 2025

Registration Closed

Horizons Challenge I

This Horizons Challenge, in collaboration with NASA, focused on identifying problems that need solving now for a future in space. Topic areas were Safe & Sustainable Food, Off-Grid AI, Peak Human Performance, and High-Tech Health.

status

Awarded

Prize

$2,040

Finals

September 2025

Having a program like xFoundry that interacts and touches on all the colleges in the university is very important.
Amitabh Varshney, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at University of Maryland
One thing that really makes Xperience unique is the interdisciplinarity. Because the teaching team is interdisciplinary, we're bringing lots of different perspectives to the students, but also the students are coming from all different disciplines.
Christina Hnatov
Educator at Academy for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Through xFoundry, these students could work on these teams with students from across campus, with faculty from across campus and get these kinds of get this kind of interdisciplinary thinking, get used to doing it.
Rafael Lorente
Dean, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at University of Maryland
I joined Xperience because I wanted to tackle a problem that's a little bit different from my research project and then be able to interact with students within different disciplines. Really, I want to be able to train my skill set outside of the skills that I'm learning in my current lab right now in the science industry.
Aolani Perry '28
Ph.D. Molecular and Cell Biology at University of Maryland
We're actually teaching students not just the skills to come up with different solutions, but the skill set to like develop the problem solving process, the ideation, allowing those like wild ideas for brainstorming, thinking, and not just dismissing things that maybe seem too hard for us to accomplish.
Martha Wang, Ph.D.
Assistant Director at Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices
University of Maryland

Frequently asked questions

What types of topics do the competitions focus on?
What’s the commitment involved?  
How does funding work for winning teams?  
Do I need a business idea to participate?
Who is eligible to participate?