---
title: 25 Terp Innovations That Changed History
date: 2026-09-04T11:00:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history"
section: Articles
---
# 25 Terp Innovations That Changed History
*September 4, 2026* — by [Chris Carroll](/authors/chris-carroll), [Annie Krakower](/authors/annie-krakower)
- *Illustrations by Valerie Morgan*
> The clickable hyperlink. The Universal Product Code. The Muppets. American life wouldn’t be the same without the ingenuity of UMD researchers and alums.
*Terp25 v3 1920x1080 — Animation by Lauren Biagini*
**AN ANCIENT MYTH** tells of a great turtle that carries the world on its shell. For a modern take, look to the University of Maryland, where Terrapins have created scores of technologies, products and ideas that help keep our world turning.
Every time you check out at the grocery store, click on a link or check the weekend forecast, you’re using an innovation developed by faculty or alums. Gas station fill-ups, videogaming sessions, daily vitamin regimens and workout attire would all be different—and worse—minus the spark of UMD genius.
It’s part of a long tradition of American intellect, creativity and resourcefulness that found their highest expression in research universities, which fuse talent and training to produce advances that make life better for everyone, says UMD President Darryll J. Pines, author of the forthcoming book, “The Progress Machine: How Universities Will Drive Innovation Into the Next Century.”
While the university consistently earns a top-10 spot in The Princeton Review and *Entrepreneur* magazine’s [ranking of undergraduate entrepreneurship programs](https://today.umd.edu/umd-recognized-with-top-10-ranking-for-entrepreneurship), Pines (an aerospace engineer with seven patents himself) says, “People don’t know—they don’t understand—how embedded Maryland is in so many things they depend on every day.”
We aim to remedy that on the following pages, with an unofficial, chronological list of Terps’ greatest innovations.
- [1. Thanksgiving Turkeys](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#turkeys)
- [2. Modern Birth Control](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#birthcontrol)
- [3. Vitamin B12](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#b12)
- [4. Puppets to Educate and Entertain on TV](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#henson)
- [5. The Moscow-Washington “Red Phone”](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#redphone)
- [6. Computer Vision](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#vision)
- [7. Creamy Ice Cream](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#icecream)
- [8. Universal Product Code](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#upc)
- [9. Dawn of Bioinformatics](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#colwell)
- [10. Freedom From Smoking](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#smoking)
- [11. Clickable Hyperlinks](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#hyperlinks)
- [12. The Connected Internet](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#internet)
- [13. The Modern TV Comedy](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#seinfeld)
- [14. E-reader Technology](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#ereader)
- [15. Cardiac Care, Reinvented](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#ereader)
- [16. A New Concept of Identity](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#intersectionality)
- [17. Electronics Accessibility](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#trace)
- [18. Real-World Quantum Computing](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#quantum)
- [19. Sweat-Wicking Compression Wear](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#underarmour)
- [20. Modern Weather Forecasting](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#forecasting)
- [21. Graphics for Virtual Worlds](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#epic)
- [22. Google: King of Search Engines](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#google)
- [23. Satellite Radio](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#sirius)
- [24. Democratized Gaming VR](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#oculus)
- [25. Language Model Pioneers](https://terp.umd.edu/25-terp-innovations-that-changed-history#language)
### 1. Thanksgiving Turkeys
*Illustration of a turkey*
### 2. Modern Birth Control
*A black and white photo of a man holding up a glass beaker — Chemist Russell Marker 1923, M.S. 1924*
Research that dramatically reshaped family planning, gender roles, the workplace, sexual freedoms, and fertility trends in America and around the world all started with a root vegetable. Chemist **Russell Marker 1923, M.S. 1924** set this cultural revolution into motion in the early 1940s by [devising a cheap method](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-development-synthetic-hormones/) for turning compounds in the Mexican yam into progesterone. He founded the pharmaceutical company Syntex to manufacture it, and by collapsing the drug’s price, he laid the foundation for safe, affordable and effective oral contraceptives and a pharmacy full of hormone therapies.
**Sidebar note:**
## Bonus brilliance
Marker and a colleague invented the octane system at Ethyl Corp. in 1926. The rating system to measure resistance to incomplete fuel ignition, aka engine knocking, lets drivers economize with 87-octane gas, and keep sport cars (or lawnmowers) breathing fire with 93.
### 3. Vitamin B12
*Headshot of Mary Shaw Shorb — UMD poultry science researcher Mary Shaw Shorb*
### 4. Puppets to Educate and Entertain on TV
*A young Jim and Jane Henson among puppets they created for "Sam and Friends" — A young Jim and Jane Henson among puppets they created for "Sam and Friends."*
Before families could say, “Hi ho!” to Kermit the Frog, Big Bird and the rest of the Muppet gang, **Jim Henson ’60** and his future wife, **Jane Henson ’55**, were [experimenting with puppet potential at UMD](https://today.umd.edu/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-jim-hensons-time-terp-f21599e6-cce1-4afc-9d56-6fc7cb9c1a36). On their sketch show “Sam and Friends,” which debuted in 1955 on Washington’s NBC affiliate, they introduced an early version of the beloved amphibian—crafted from Jim’s mother’s felt coat and a ping-pong ball—and eliminated the traditional puppet stage, using the TV screen itself as the proscenium. The show’s success led the Hensons to “Sesame Street,” whose cuddly characters still charm audiences today while teaching counting, the alphabet and kindness in 150-plus countries.
### 5. The Moscow-Washington “Red Phone”
*Illustration of a red corded phone*
### 6. Computer Vision
*a computer-generated face with a blue lines over it*
### 7. Creamy Ice Cream
*A hand holds ice cream on a cone*
### 8. Universal Product Code
*A barcode*
### 9. Dawn of Bioinformatics
*Black and white photo of a young Rita Colwell using a microscope as a man looks on*
Cholera, a bacterial infection that kills an estimated 100,000 people yearly, was once thought to only spread person-to-person. But in a landmark 1975 research publication, microbiologist **Rita Colwell**, today a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, showed that *Vibrio cholerae* lives in bodies of water, independent of any human disease outbreak. This work was grounded in her pioneering use in the 1960s of computational methods to identify bacteria with a consistency that individual human observation couldn’t match. Starting in the 1980s, she developed a method that can calculate the risk of cholera outbreaks around the globe using satellite data. Along with her discoveries, she found—and fought—the [bias that women can't do science](https://terp.umd.edu/double-infection-fighter).
### 10. Freedom From Smoking
*No smoking sign*
### 11. Clickable Hyperlinks
*Old desktop computer with the words Welcome to the World Wide Web and a hand on the screen*
### 12. The Connected Internet
By the late ’80s, the internet had sprouted isolated arms, but nothing made it the overarching global network we know and love (and hate) today. Then in 1988, UMD Director of Academic Computing and Networking **Glenn Ricart Ph.D. ’80** flipped the switch on the world’s [first internet exchange point](https://www.internethalloffame.org/2016/08/08/how-one-universitys-networking-mistake-sparked-us-internet/); it bridged existing commercial, government and academic computer networks, vastly expanding users’ experience of the online world. Ricart is also credited as the force behind UMD becoming the first university to implement campuswide internet protocols in 1984.
### 13. The Modern TV Comedy
*The cast of "Seinfeld"*
*Larry David*
### 14. E-reader Technology
*Illustration of an e-reader*
### 15. Cardiac Care, Reinvented
*Illustration of a heart with EKG lines over it*
### 16. A New Concept of Identity
*headshots of Patricia Hill Collins, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Ruth Zambrana — From left, Distinguished University Professor Emerita Patricia Hill Collins former College of Arts and Humanities Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill and women’s studies Professor Ruth Zambrana.*
This analytical framework used by the social sciences to understand interlocking “-isms” related to race, gender and class was created in large part by Terps. The landmark book [“Black Feminist Thought”](https://www.amazon.com/Black-Feminist-Thought-Consciousness-Empowerment/dp/1138127248) by sociologist and Distinguished University Professor Emerita **Patricia Hill Collins** helped establish intersectionality in 1990 as a rigorous field of scholarship. UMD’s Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity was founded in 1998 by scholar **Bonnie Thornton Dill**, a professor emerita of women’s studies and former College of Arts and Humanities dean, and women’s studies Professor **Ruth Zambrana**; it provided a home from which intersectionality developed in directions that influenced law, medicine, education and other fields.
### 17. Electronics Accessibility
*Illustration of an ATM*
### 18. Real-World Quantum Computing
*Quantum technology*
### 19. Sweat-Wicking Compression Wear
*Long-sleeve white Under Armour shirt*
### 20. Modern Weather Forecasting
*Illustration of an umbrella and rain*
### 21. Graphics for Virtual Worlds
*Creatures from Fortnite in a grassy field*
The hit 1998 first-person shooter game [Unreal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(1998_video_game)) did exactly the opposite of what its name implied: Its jaw-dropping lighting effects and large, open, simulated 3D spaces made gaming seem more real. The namesake graphics engine behind it was developed by **Tim Sweeney ’93**, who started the company Epic Games in his parents’ home in Potomac, Md. The Unreal Engine went on to run its 2017 breakout phenomenon, Fortnite (above), which now counts over 650 million registered users and more than $40 billion in revenue. The most recent iteration, [Unreal Engine 5](https://www.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine-5), is not only the foundation of countless state-of-the-art games; it’s also used to design buildings and cars, in medical training, and in film, TV production and broadcast environments.
### 22. Google: King of Search Engines
*Search bar for Google*
Quick: Name the internet search engines of the day when **Sergey Brin ’93** and Larry Page launched Google in September 1998. (Prize goes to the middle-aged reader in the corner who remembers Northern Light and Webcrawler.) Its revolutionary approach to ranking World Wide Web pages operated with remarkable accuracy, and as a result, its number of daily queries skyrocketed from 10,000 at launch to 3.5 million in the first year. Today as part of Alphabet, it’s as pervasive as the air we breathe: Google owns about 90% of the search market, dominates online advertising, powers most of the world’s smartphones via Android and leads in autonomous vehicle service with Waymo—and Brin is still deeply involved.
### 23. Satellite Radio
*A satellite in a warehouse*
### 24. Democratized Gaming VR
*Oculus virtual reality headset*
### 25. Language Model Pioneers
*Illustration of speech bubbles*
*American flag icon*
**Sidebar note:**
## WHAT DID WE MISS?
We couldn’t squeeze every Terp touchstone into this unofficial list. What do you think we should have included? Email us at .
**Issue:** [Fall 2026](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2026)
**Types:** [Features](https://terp.umd.edu/category/features)
**Tags:** [America 250](https://terp.umd.edu/tags/america-250)