Where Ideas Get Built: University of Maryland Launches the Idea Factory
Mtech gets a new name, a new director, and an expanded and inspirational vision for entrepreneurship and innovation in Maryland and beyond
On Oct. 1, the University of Maryland launched the Idea Factory, the new name and expanded vision for the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, or Mtech, which for more than four decades has brought university research to market and had a $94.8 billion impact on Maryland's economy.
Renaming Mtech to Idea Factory aligns the institute’s identity more closely with its mission, impact, and future direction. While “Mtech” reflects a historical focus on industry collaboration and fostering technology commercialization, Idea Factory captures the institute’s expanded role as a catalyst and support mechanism for innovation, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary problem-solving across the University of Maryland and beyond.
This role includes strategic priorities to reimagine enhanced learning, empower innovators and entrepreneurs, and build innovation partnerships to enhance impact. In practice, it builds on already successful programs with plans to offer more mentoring, space, and capital to start-ups, as well as more opportunities for faculty and students to engage in innovation.
The Idea Factory is headquartered in the E. A. Fernandez IDEA Factory, amplifying the building’s role as a hub for entrepreneurship. Encompassing all these programs and facilities in the “HQ” building reinforces the institute’s new name: it’s all working together toward new innovation.
Mtech Director William Bentley kicked off the name unveiling event.
"Technology is moving faster,” said Bentley. “Industries are changing. New ideas are emerging from our labs, classrooms, companies and communities every day. Our goal is to create the environment where those ideas get built."
University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines moderated a panel on the intersection of industry and academia. Panelists included:
- Jonathan Chen '14, president and co-CEO of Nitra and co-founder of FiscalNote
- Eric Wachsman, director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute and co-founder and executive chair of ION Storage Systems
- Corrina Lathan, neuroscientist/engineer, entrepreneur and co-founder and former CEO and board chair of AnthroTronix
- Harry Coker, Jr., Maryland secretary of commerce
The event concluded with Bentley announcing Don DeVoe's appointment as the inaugural director of the Idea Factory. Bentley will continue to lead the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices.
DeVoe is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He holds affiliate faculty appointments in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and is a Fischell Institute Fellow.
DeVoe ‘91, M.S. ‘93, completed his degrees in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UMD, and received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
His research interests target the development of microfluidic systems for applications in clinical diagnostics, cancer immunology, nanomedicine, and aerovirology. His work has been supported by NIH, NSF, DARPA, ONR, NIST, and diverse industry partners, and he has supervised more than 35 doctoral students. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on eight U.S. patents.
In 2000, DeVoe co-founded Calibrant Biosystems, a biomarker discovery company leveraging technology licensed from UMD. He later founded Io Scientific to commercialize active nanomaterials developed in his lab for enhanced protein analysis by mass spectrometry. Devoe has also served as PI on seven projects supported by the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program.
DeVoe received a Wilson H. Elkins Professorship from UMD in 2020, and was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in 2023. He is also a recipient of the 2013 University System of Maryland Regents Award for Research. DeVoe was recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the National Science Foundation in 1999 for advances in microsystems technology, and was named a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008.
“We have a vision to transform innovation at this university,” said DeVoe. “Imagine a Fearless Innovation Hub with dedicated technical incubator space, new opportunities for faculty to move lab discoveries to the marketplace, an angel syndicate to fund Maryland companies and keep them here, a university-wide mentoring program, externships that put faculty inside companies, and initiatives that place both undergraduate and graduate students into companies for hands-on product development. We hope you will consider joining us on this journey.”