FEARLESS "Ideas Worth Spreading"
In the spirit of TED's "Ideas Worth Spreading," we wanted to bring this concept to Maryland so that we can share the many amazing ideas that develop both on and off campus. If you have an inspirational or interesting idea, project, class, or anything at all, please share it on Twitter or Instagram, and it may be featured here! Spreading ideas starts here at UMD - there is so much going on! Let's hear about all the interesting thoughts and ideas are peers bring to the table. Enjoy!
Chelsea Stolt and Sydney Deems, undergraduate students at UMD are starting a student group, Campaign Against Chemicals.
"It's to bring awareness to the unsafe chemicals in our food, household products, and cosmetics and to build civic leaders revolving this issue. I am all natural now and even made my own chemical free makeup, I hope with the group more people will stop using/eating things with chemicals."
Along with this, Chelsea is also beginning her own initiative, going waste-free in 2016: "It's called Waste Free 2016. I'm going completely waste - free in terms of only buying stuff that can be composted or recycled. I'm doing a lot of research on waste and how being waste free is important." She then plans to write about her experiences on a blog.
- Chelsea Stolt
"I saw in movies like Iron Man and James Bond they had touchscreen tables and I wanted one too. But I didn't want to spend upwards of 5,000 dollars to buy one. So I decided to just build one instead. I decided to use a method called "diffused surface illumination" to convert a normal 40 inch lcd tv into a touchscreen and build a wooden coffee table frame around it."
- Ami Charnoff
Senior, Computer Science Major
Aaron Wallach launched Javazen as an undergraduate at UMD. The business took off and Javazen is now a successful company, combining the goodness of tea with the taste of coffee.
"Javazen combines organic coffee with functional ingredients like teas and superfoods, creating delicious, healthy and uniquely energizing blends. We are one of the fastest growing coffee brands on the market, with scheduled launches in several national retailers next year. Javazen was started two years ago with the intention of promoting health through coffee."
- Aaron Wallach
UMD 2014 Graduate