The spirit of creativity, problem-solving, and social impact was on full display at the Delaware Innovation Fellows (DIF) Innovation Showcase, held on Wednesday, May 14 in Trabant University Center. The event spotlighted the final-phase projects of DIF students, capping their three-year journey through Horn Entrepreneurship’s signature enrichment program.
“The Innovation Showcase is more than a presentation of student projects—it’s a celebration of their transformation into changemakers,” said Dr. Laura Gasiorowski, associate professor of entrepreneurship and faculty director of the Delaware Innovation Fellows program. “These students have spent the last three years developing not just ideas, but the confidence, empathy, and entrepreneurial mindset to turn those ideas into real-world impact. I couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve accomplished.”
Each student showcased a unique venture or innovation aimed at addressing real-world problems—from food waste and healthcare equity to fashion sustainability and neurodiversity advocacy. Congratulations to all participants for their bold ideas and hard work!
The showcase featured the following final-phase projects:
Devina Patel, Financial Planning & Wealth Management and Finance double major, Entrepreneurial Leadership certificate class of 2026
Heni Patel, Computer Science major, Eco-Entrepreneurship and Tech Innovation & Entrepreneurship certificates, class of 2025
The Leftover Donation App aims to address food waste by connecting event hosts with volunteers who can pick up leftover food from gatherings and donate it to local homeless shelters. The app will allow users to easily post information about leftover food availability, including the type of food, quantity, and pick-up times. Volunteers can browse these postings and coordinate pick-ups, ensuring that surplus food is efficiently redirected to those in need.
Kyra Cameron, Fashion Design & Product Innovation major, Design & Creative Making certificate, class of 2025
Hen House seeks to streamline the off-campus housing experience for students and landlords in the Newark area. By aggregating the housing listings and having more thorough renter profiles, she will make the rental process easier for both students and landlords.
Olivia Jin, Human Services major, class of 2026
With a mission to address the lack of acknowledgement and awareness for individuals who have a sibling that is on the autism spectrum disorder, who are also known as Glass Siblings, this program will prioritize socio-cognitive support needs, education on what their neurodivergent siblings experience, and will guide older participants on how they can provide assistance and support for their siblings. With different age cohorts, the program will provide support for Glass Siblings in all stages of their lives.
Joseph Carranza, Neuroscience major, Innovation & Entrepreneurship for Health certificate, class of 2026
The Atomic Diffractive Imaging (ADI) project aspires to revolutionize medical imaging by introducing the first non-invasive nuclear technique of spontaneously mapping the brain at the atomic level. This innovation not only enhances our accuracy in mapping the brain but also facilitates the administration of individualized atomic treatments to destroy malignant tissues and/or restore nonfunctional tissues without surgical intervention.
Krish Goswami, Biological Sciences major, Entrepreneurship minor, class of 2025
Medical waiting rooms are crowded, awkward, and unaccommodating. With my project through Delaware Innovation Fellows, I sought to redefine that space. Please Wait Differently offers an alternative vision of the waiting room: one that is more welcoming, more human, and more supportive. I will develop a design featuring quiet zones, family-friendly areas, multicultural signs, calming graphics, and simple wellness practices like breathing and puzzles. It's an inexpensive, people-focused way to improve a component of healthcare that touches us all but is most often overlooked.
Andrew McAleer, Entrepreneurship major, class of 2025
Airbnb transformed the way we travel and experience accommodation, Storbnb aims to create a short-term storage industry within a home away from home. College Students need to store things while waiting for their next place and we created a online platform where students who have an empty room in their house, they can list on our website and gain passive income, allowing people to use your unused space and store their belongings until they are ready to be moved into their new place of living.
Grace Phillips, Political Science major, Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship certificate, class of 2025
Xpress-On is created in order to remedy the gap in the nail care market. People want to look good and fit in and one of the best ways to do that is through manicured nails. However, nail salons are pricey and the cheaper alternatives (press ons) fall off and look cheap. With Xpress-On, the press on nail experience will be a completely customizable subscription, from the nail size to shape to color, in order to ensure that your press on nails last and can arrive on your doorstep whenever you need.
Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement at the University of Delaware. Currently ranked among the best entrepreneurship programs in the US, Horn Entrepreneurship was built and is actively supported by successful entrepreneurs, empowering aspiring innovators as they pursue new ideas for a better world.