Office of Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Resources and Engagement

Foster Center for Innovation

The Foster Center is the Office of Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Resources and Engagement’s hub of innovation-focused activities at the University of Maine and the state’s leading resource for innovation and commercialization. The Foster Center offers graduate courses and a certificate program in Innovation. Serving both the campus community and outside businesses and organizations, the center provides incubation space for student-run businesses, research and startup accelerator programs, training for faculty and students looking to commercialize research, and internships through the Black Bear Consulting Corps and Innovate for Maine Fellows programs.

MIRTA

Five teams participated in the Maine Innovation Research and Technology Accelerator (MIRTA) 6.0 Cohort, developing research ideas and honing them into possible commercial-ready products.

In 2023, for the first time, Fellows from the Graduate School of Business assisted teams with their projects. Also for the first time, MIRTA joined with Maine Health to help one of their employees bring one of their innovations closer to market.

MIRTA was designed to assist University of Maine System researchers advance lab discoveries into public and commercial use, and the program has expanded to support innovations from other Maine research institutions. The accelerator is administered by the Office of Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Resources and Engagement (SPIRE) out of the Foster Center for Innovation, with support from Maine Technology Institute and the University of Maine System Research Reinvestment Fund. Over the course of the program, guided by program staff and external advisers, teams engage in customer discovery, market analysis, prototyping, partnership development and technology evaluation to map strategies for bringing their research to market.

SunRule

The first installation of an interactive sculpture that harnesses the rays of the sun to help users explore multiplication and division has been installed in a public park near UMaine, the product of a unique partnership between the University of Maine and the town of Orono, Maine.

The SunRule, invented by UMaine associate professor of mathematics education and instructional technology Justin Dimmel and associate professor of mathematics education Eric Pandiscio, was installed at Webster Park in October 2022. The SunRule sculpture concept evolved through UMaine’s MIRTA accelerator, a program designed to advance research along the path to commercialization, turning lab innovations into real-world products and services with public benefit.

The prototype sculpture was designed and built by UMaine associate professor of art Greg Ondo and sculpture studio technician Sam Hoey. UMaine graduate Emma Reedman ’21 also was a member of the development team.

Muddy River Farm Aquaponics

Growing oysters to market size typically takes up to three years due to colder winter temperatures, but a new land-based growing system developed by Ph.D. student Matt Nixon and Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) researcher Dr. Doug Gardner has reduced that timeframe to five months. Nixon formed Muddy River Farm Aquaponics to use this new technology in the world’s first 3D-printed, closed-loop oyster growing system.

Nixon is opening a 15,000-square-foot facility in Bath, Maine to house the system, where he hopes to grow 1,000,000 oysters in his first year. His vision is to provide low cost and healthy vegetables, freshwater fish, and seafood using sustainable, resilient, and innovative methods and growth techniques. The system is not dependent on access to saltwater since he is able to make his own on-site.

Nixon brainstormed with Gardner on an innovative and cost-effective way to grow oysters, bringing the resulting idea–a patent-pending design of a 3D-printed oyster pod–to life. Nixon and Gardner further developed the business model through the Foster Center’s I-Corps program and MIRTA accelerator. The Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Alliance for Renewable Technologies (SM2ART) program between the University of Maine’s ASCC and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which offers short term technical collaboration partnerships that enable industry partners to tap into UMaine and Oak Ridge National Lab capabilities, supported the project’s technical development.

Matt Nixon: “Without UMaine’s SM2ART and the immense support that their staff and faculty have provided over the past six years, my company never would have gotten off the ground. Where others saw daydreams, UMaine saw potential and operationalized that potential through I-Corps, MIRTA, and their partnership with Oak Ridge National Labs. They have been a tremendous partner, an intense listener, and a critical pillar of support.”

Innovate for Maine and Black Bear Consulting Corps

In 2023, the Innovate for Maine fellows program doubled in size to nearly 40 students with assistance from Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan funding that made hosting an IFM fellow free for qualifying businesses.

Innovate for Maine connects the most innovation-minded Maine college and graduate students with Maine’s most exciting growing companies for paid summer fellowships designed to accelerate company growth. Through training and hands-on work experiences, student fellows develop innovation skills and learn about the dynamic entrepreneurial and innovative companies operating in the state.

Student Spotlights 

Marissa Espinosa

Now working toward graduating from UMaine in 2025 with her B.S. in Business Administration Management, Marissa first came to the Pine Tree State from Kentucky as a member of the U.S. Navy. Before that, she worked in both Congress and her state legislature where she assisted a family through the international adoption process and brought their child home to the U.S. after a seven-year battle with a foreign government. Marissa describes herself as outgoing, hardworking, and personable, and she loves working with people. Marissa was a 2023 Innovate For Maine Fellow at The Devil’s Half Acre Distillery, Maine’s only veteran-owned distillery and makers of the award winning “Jigger & Jones” gin.

Sean Fuller

Originally from Eliot, Maine, Sean is a well- rounded student who made Dean’s List for the Spring 2023 semester. He double majors in Computer Science and New Media with a minor in Creative Writing. He describes himself as reserved, meticulous, and creative, spending his free time directing student films and enjoying the people and scenery of Maine. Sean was a 2023 Fellow with both Hootenanny Bread in Damariscotta and Move Free activewear on Mount Desert Island.

Tyler Technologies 

Now entering its third year, a partnership between the Office of Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Resources and Engagement and Tyler Technologies is bringing high school and middle school students from across the state to experience how UMaine’s flagship research university is innovating in STEAM disciplines.

In 2021, Tyler Technologies brought UMaine’s Foster Center for Innovation on as a partner in the company’s Maine App Challenge (MAC), an annual app development and scholarship competition.

As part of an effort to engage more Maine students in the Challenge, the Foster Center team developed a series of workshops designed to help students incorporate innovation principles into the apps they developed for MAC. UMaine’s innovation workshops are heavily weighted in the MAC judging rubric, and students who complete the workshop series are eligible to earn Level 1 Innovation badges in the University of Maine System micro- credential pathway.

Students who submitted apps for the 2021-2022 MAC were invited to participate in a special “innovation tour” at UMaine, visiting the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the VEMI Lab, and the Foster Center. Off that successful blueprint, the tour program was expanded for the 2022-2023 MAC season, and students on four additional tours have had the opportunity to explore the Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center, interact with faculty and students in disciplines including engineering and computer science, “ride” in the VEMI Lab’s autonomous simulator, and much more.

To date, 150 students from 24 districts across Maine have registered for Tyler Tech-sponsored tours of the Orono campus, and the program is growing. An MOU signed in 2023 will not only expand the tour program over the coming year, but also offer students the opportunity to earn college credit through a dual enrollment innovation course sponsored by Tyler, as well as innovation training opportunities for Maine educators who want to teach innovation concepts built around MAC participation.