Students and faculty will debut innovative projects in the annual Founders Day showcase of University-wide entrepreneurship on May 14.

Featuring newly developed products, business concepts and startup ideas, the event in Walter Library in the Toaster Innovation Hub is open to the public. Founders Day will run from 4:30-7 p.m.

The event, co-hosted by the University Libraries and the Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, will feature 25 projects from classes and labs at the University as a part of its Minimum Viable Product challenge, a program that helps fund select teams’ prototype development.

Each year, the challenge awards up to 25 grants ranging from $100 to $3,000 across digital, physical and social project divisions.

Recent technology startups from the University will also be highlighted, and awards in entrepreneurship will be given out to students and faculty, according to the event press release.

Allison McDonald, the marketing and events manager for the Holmes Center, said the event fosters collaboration between the STEM-focused innovators at the University and the greater business community.

“We recognize that sometimes our business community can feel really detached from our innovation and more STEM-focused scientific community,” McDonald said. “It’s kind of a way to bridge the gap between that of saying, how do we support them on this journey and make sure that they’re able to actually bring this to market?”

McDonald said over 300 people have registered to attend this year’s event. Nearly 40 total participants will make up 23 teams of one to five challenge participants and 14 individuals giving presentations from different University experiential learning courses.

Attendees will also have the opportunity throughout the event to vote for projects, selecting a crowd favorite and a project that is most impactful, while a panel of five judges will choose the best overall project, McDonald said.

Founders Day and the Minimum Viable Product challenge are open to students and faculty innovators system-wide, also featuring teams from the University’s Duluth campus this year.

Deb Miedema, outreach and development specialist with the University’s technology innovation hub MIN-Corps in the Holmes Center, said preparation for the challenge is extensive and starts as early as June.

“We take about a week after Founders Day to sort of catch our breath, and then we already start thinking about MVP for the fall, because applications open in October,” Miedema said.

Teams selected to participate attend workshops up until the event. This year, six workshops were held in the Toaster covering topics like intellectual property, human-centered design and customer discovery, according to Miedema.

As a challenge coach, Miedema said there is benefit to the public forum of the event and challenge, which allows teams and individuals the opportunity to pitch their ideas or prototypes while networking with founders and other entrepreneurs.

“We want to build an innovation ecosystem here in the Twin Cities,” Miedema said. ”The best place to do that is here at the University, where we’re doing really cool research and our students are supported.”

Morgan Kerfeld, an associate director at the Holmes Center and a challenge coach, said participating while finishing her MBA at the University was a game-changing experience.

Kerfeld, who co-founded Telo, a company developing assistive walking devices, said the challenge provided funding to develop their first functional prototype as well as mentorship at a critical time.

“What MVP allowed us to do was get to that stage of having a really durable and safe prototype that we could get testing from actual users of mobility devices,” Kerfeld said. “That feedback was incredibly valuable.”

Kerfeld said the most valuable part of the event and participating in the challenge is the feedback and support from coaches and other administrators involved. As a coach to MVP teams this year, Kerfeld said it has been rewarding to give back to a diverse group of students who are passionate about making change in specific areas.

“I think when you’re at an early stage in a business idea, the best possible thing that you can get is feedback,” Kerfeld said. “What the MVP challenge allows you to do is really take that first step with resources and support around you, so that it’s not as scary.”