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Baltimore daily roundup: Iron Man’s STEM mission; UMBC doubling tech internships; Robots make engineering kits

Plus, a 10-year vision for Downtown.

Sunset from the eastern end of Patterson Park in May 2024 (Sameer Rao/Technical.ly)

The Iron Man’s mission for youth STEM

Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr.’s impact on the Baltimore region goes far beyond his stake in the Os. Last month, the family foundation he cofounded and named after his late father opened its 500th STEM center for schoolchildren at Lansdowne Middle School in Halethorpe. Ripken wrote about these centers, which will continue expand throughout the country, in a new opinion essay.

“We’re thrilled that our programs help develop the next generation of STEM experts and the future tech workforce,” Ripken Jr. writes. “We know the value of students gaining knowledge, skills and confidence in these fields.”

➡️ Learn more in iconic #8’s new guest post here.

$25K to make kids’ engineering materials with a robot

Maryland recently supported FutureMakers’ pivot into manufacturing with a five-figure grant to help the local hands-on-learning company incorporate robotics.

Launched in 2011, FutureMakers continues to focus on creating playful and educational experiences for young people, but now also creates engineering kits for learners in preK-8th grade. The Baltipreneurs and Conscious Venture Lab alum received $25,000 through the Department of Commerce’s Maryland Manufacturing 4.0 program, which funds manufacturing facilities’ transition to automation and digitization.

The company will use the money to pilot a collaborative robot that can help make these educational tools.

“Now we can pilot material handling tasks — loading and unloading laser cutting machines — with a manufacturing cobot that is easy to teach, can be moved to support different production cells, and is super safe to work alongside,” said CEO Matt Barinholtz.

➡️ See who else won manufacturing grants across Maryland.

News Incubator: What else to know today

• $700,000 from Gov. Wes Moore’s commerce budget is helping the UMBC-HQed Maryland Technology Internship Program double its impact. See if MTIP could help your company get a summer intern. [Technical.ly]

• Leaders of the Digital Harbor Foundation and NasaClip are among the 41 nominees for the Maryland Tech Council’s 2024 ICON Awards, which take place tomorrow. [Technical.ly]

 A quartet of class-action lawsuits accuses Columbia-based MedStar Health of not doing enough to prevent a data breach that affected over 183,000 people. [Baltimore Biz Journal]

 Mayor Brandon Scott’s office dropped “Downtown RISE: A 10-Year Vision” today. The joint effort between the city and Gov. Moore’s administration, as well as the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and other partners, builds on prior work to develop a long-term plan for Downtown’s vitality and accessibility. [Mayor’s Office]

• Local universities’ innovation programs were especially active these last few weeks. Towson’s StarTUp program announced its latest cohort, while Johns Hopkins awarded hundreds of thousands to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Challenge, President’s Venture Fellows and Fuel and Social Innovation Lab cohorts. [Towson/Johns Hopkins]

• Newsweek recognized b.Well Connected Health as one of the world’s best health companies of 2024. [Newsweek]

🗓️ On the Calendar

• May 23: The Greater Baltimore Committee hosts its latest annual meeting and releases its 10-year plan in Sparrows Point. [Details here]

• May 30: Techstars and UpSurge Baltimore’s latest Equitech Accelerator cohort celebrates and pitches to the community during its annual demo day. [Details here]

• June 4: bwtech@UMBC and Startup Grind Maryland’s inaugural StartUp Accelerator showcases its cohort during a virtual demo day. [Details here]

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