The Maryland Innovation Initiative's Pop-up event at the University of Maryland, College Park brought together innovators, researchers, and entrepreneurs to showcase the state's top tech inventions. The event, sponsored by TEDCO and MII, highlighted the commercial possibilities of the state's creative faculty and served as a catalyst for startup projects and an entrepreneurial mindset. The winners of the Invention of the Year Awards included a solar-powered system for extracting drinkable water from tough environments and innovations in eco-friendly composites, plastic substitutes, cancer detection, and quantum frequency conversion.