Student Research and Innovation Projects

Supporting Student Innovation Across Disciplines

Student researchers often see opportunities for innovation in their respective disciplines. The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship helps bring their ideas to fruition. We provide a broad array of resources — including design thinking and project management training, technical prototyping, workforce coaching, and mentorship by faculty and community leaders. We also provide physical spaces to foster student innovation and research, such as the P.D. Merrill Design Lab and the Makerspace. Additionally, our new Sustainable Innovations Center is set to open in April 2025, with further details coming soon.

With support from the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UNE students have published papers, presented research at conferences, secured internship and employment opportunities, and gained recognition and investment from Maine's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Student Projects Highlight Collaborative Research

Project Examples

UNE Students Run Seaweed Bar Company 

In 2024, SeaMade Seaweed Company gifted UNE their nutrition bar company, transitioning it to a UNE teaching tool that offers a highly visible example of interdisciplinary collaboration and an all-natural, honey-and-kelp treat made by students using locally sourced ingredients. Using the teaching kitchen and other UNE facilities, a team of student innovators is overseeing the production, marketing, sales, and branding of the kelp bars.

President Herbert stands with a group of U N E employees and students while holding up a fresh seaweed bar in the student kitchen
Cameron Wake prepares a seaweed bar to go into its packaging

Tracking Climate Change Along Maine’s Coast — at UNE’s Own Island Research Station

The seismometer, called the “Raspberry Shake,” that UNE researchers and students installed on nearby Ram Island tracks earthquakes and wave activity on the 2-acre island that UNE owns, providing a global network of scientists with real-time data online to help explain the effects of climate change. UNE students also analyze the data in the Sustainable Innovation Center on the University’s coastal Biddeford campus.

Past Student Projects

Using Drones in Research

Meet members of the UNE Drone Club. Through the P.D. Merrill Makerspace, Drone Club members earned their certification to fly drones. The goal was to use drones to further support faculty and student research at UNE. Katie Dimm, Marine Sciences ‘22, used drones to support at-sea research, while Xander Vitarelli, Environmental Sciences ‘22, used a drone to support research into field-nesting bobolinks in Vermont.

Studying Pollutant Movements

Using GPS-equipped drifters created in the Makerspace, UNE graduate student Andy Robinson ’21 researched how water flowed in and out of Biddeford Pool to better understand the movement of pollutants affecting the local shellfish industry. He also used drone footage to monitor boat orientation in nearby Wood Island Harbor, providing additional insight into changes in surface currents.

A student in a life vest places an orange in the ocean from a boat