The year 2017 marked yet another exciting period of innovation and growth for the University of Maryland (UMD) research community, with over 170 inventions disclosed and 52 patented, 46 technologies licensed, and the receipt of the largest investment in UMD history in total of $219.5 million from the A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation. Researchers broke barriers in fields related to agriculture, information management, biotechnology, and energy, making discoveries and inventing technologies that have the potential to make positive impacts on the planet and on people’s lives around the globe.