Experiential Learning Accelerators


National Science Foundation Invites UConn to Join Prestigious Partnership, Enhancing Opportunities for Science, Tech Startups

UConn Today – The University of Connecticut has joined the National Science Foundation I-Corps Hub Northeast Region, a prestigious appointment that will allow the university to serve more entrepreneurs seeking to develop scientific and technological innovations.

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UConn’s Innovation Quest Turns Students into Entrepreneurs

UConn Today – Just a year ago, Amelia Martin ’23 (CAHNR) was an undergraduate student with a great idea for creating an eco-friendly surfboard, but little idea how to bring it to the marketplace.

Today she is an entrepreneur and the owner of Mud Rat, a company creating organic surfboard cores from the mycelium of mushrooms. The material can replace Styrofoam, which produces toxic dust, and takes hundreds of years to decompose.

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Innovation Experts Make Their Pitch for Quantum Technology, Unleashing Excitement, Urgency

UConn Today – If Connecticut is afforded the opportunity to develop the most advanced technology in the world—technology that would save lives, create jobs, strengthen the economy, and revolutionize many industries— how could it not vigorously pursue it?

That was the question that Rajeeb Hazra, an international quantum-computing expert, and the keynote speaker at Thursday’s “Imagining a Quantum Future’’ event, posed to the audience of more than 150 academic, government, and industry leaders.

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UConn ‘BUILD Hartford’ Students Brainstorm Ideas to Make Capital City More Vibrant

UConn Today – More than a dozen UConn students put Hartford under the microscope this semester, assessing the city’s strengths, scrutinizing its shortcomings, and strategizing ways to increase its vibrancy.

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After Semester-Long Development, Student-Created ‘BrewConn’ Beer Debuts with Glowing Reviews

UConn Today – The University of Connecticut unveiled an inaugural, student-created beer on Tuesday, with a celebration that drew more than 350 alumni, friends, and other brewmasters, all eager to sample BrewConn, a double dry hopped hazy IPA.

The event, at Kinsmen Brewing Co. in Southington, capped off a semester of hard work for nine students, mostly chemical engineering majors, who learned the craft of brewing, literally from the ground up.

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Wolff Entrepreneurship Competition Crowns Startup That Brings Emotional-Coping Skills to Elementary-Age Kids

UConn Today – The entrepreneurs who created Feel Your Best Self, a startup focused on social-emotional learning for elementary school-aged students, won the highly coveted Wolff New Venture Competition and a $25,000 prize on Tuesday night.

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Green-Energy Tech Startup Founder Optimistic About the Future: ‘You’re Going to Hear About Us!’

UConn Today – Most startups aspire to achieve great things, but Particle-N, a UConn-affiliated technology company, has a particularly inspiring mission.

The company is preparing to enter the $19 billion, global precious-metal catalyst market and to simultaneously support the clean-energy industry in Connecticut.

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A Wave of Inspiration Led UConn Student to Become a Surfboard Entrepreneur

UConn Today – Amelia Martin ’23 ’25 (CAHNR) never saw herself becoming an entrepreneur.

An enthusiastic environmentalist, she thought maybe she’d work as a farmer, with plants and animals, or in a lab. In her spare time, she planned to make frequent trips to the Rhode Island shore, where she loves to surf.

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Startup ‘Feel Your Best Self’ Helps Young Kids Express, Address Their Emotions

UConn Today – When Sandy Chafouleas and Emily Wicks recently told an audience of business experts that there is an epidemic in children’s mental health, no one seemed surprised.

For years, the increase in depression and anxiety among children has been painfully and repeatedly documented in the media, in classrooms, and in overwhelmed emergency rooms.

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UConn Ph.D. Student Is Working to Clean Up One of the World’s Dirtiest Chemical Processes

UConn Today – Before he became a UConn Ph.D. student, Laron Burrows worked as an engineer in the renewable energy industry.
His interest in making chemical processes more “planet friendly” isn’t just a passing interest, he says. It is his life’s work. His passion has led to the creation of a new company, called Andros, that is trying to disrupt one of the dirtiest chemical processes in the world: ammonia production.

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