I found that expression on the third from last paragraph in this article on American education in Forbes magazine and while I can guess more or less what it might mean, I wondered if someone could tell me if it has some specific American cultural context which I am not familiar with ?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericaswallow/2012/04/25/creating-innovators/2/
Every young person I interviewed wants to make a difference in the world, put a ding in the universe.”
It's a quote from Steve Jobs. From an obituary:
>Jobs believed design and technology could improve the world. “I want to put a ding in the universe,” he told me when I first met him in 1981. This was a sentence he often used
A "ding" is a small dent in something, most often a vehicle. When I got home from the store, I noticed a ding in the front of my car.
It can also be a verb for "to hit," but usually not a serious hit. Someone or something dinged my car while I was in the store.
A "ding in the universe" is a more expansive version of "make your mark on the world."