Stories & Updates

The 15 latest recipients of Blue Hen 17&43 awards were announced at the recent Blue Hen Innovation Fest. These awards are Horn Entrepreneurship and the Lerner College of Business & Economics’annual recognition of the most promising early-stage startups founded by University of Delaware alumni.

The final round of Hen Hatch featured four teams with widely divergent concepts: straws that change color to discreetly reveal spiked drinks, an app for women to manage chronic health conditions, a clothing line that supports animal shelters and autonomous robots that look for leaks in water lines.

This October, The Siegfried Group, LLP (Siegfried) and Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware (UD) honored Geoff Woods, author of #1 international bestseller The AI-Driven Leader and Founder of AI Leadership, with the 2025 Siegfried Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership. In a private dinner and award ceremony at Wilmington Country Club, Woods was celebrated for his groundbreaking approach to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) as a thought partner and commitment to getting in the driver’s seat in a rapidly evolving digital landscape – learning and wielding the emerging technology to spark exponential progress.

UD alumna’s success comes as Horn Entrepreneurship climbs into the top 25 in the 2026 Princeton Review rankings

Four teams advanced to the final round of Hen Hatch, UD’s premier startup funding competition, at the 2025 Blue Hen Innovation Fest on December 4. These finalists will compete to find out how much of the $50,000 prize pool will help them advance their ventures.

The University of Delaware has been awarded a $699,258 Institutional Impact Grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University to launch a three-year, university-wide initiative focused on character development. The project, University of Delaware Coalition on Character Development: Advancing Flagship State Institutional Leadership, will create a strategic plan to align and elevate character development efforts across academic and co-curricular settings.

Horn Entrepreneurship is now accepting applications for its annual awards and scholarships, offering more than $10,000 in cash and Venture Development Center credit. These awards recognize innovative and entrepreneurial undergraduate students from all majors at the University of Delaware.

Fifteen women wereinducted into the WE Hatch Honor Circle, a cornerstone of WE Hatch, a Horn initiative that aims to empower innovative and entrepreneurial women.

The latest recipients for Blue Hen 17&43 Most Promising Venture awards were announced at the first Blue Hen Innovation Fest. Theseawards are Horn Entrepreneurship and the Lerner College of Business & Economics' annual recognition of the University of Delaware's most promising early-stage startups.

Four teams competed in the final round of Hen Hatch, UD’s premier startup funding competition, and all four won thousands of dollars from a panel of judges – plus $2,500 for travel expenses to other competitions and often time with consultants.