NOW OPEN: Submit to the 2026 Student Design Challenge for RESNA 2026 at Abilities Expo
DEADLINES: Please see the submission deadline for the Student Design Challenge below.
*The Student Design Challenge will be featured exclusively at the Abilities Expo in Greater New York.
- Abilities Expo | Greater New York - April 30 - May 1, 2026
- Sttudent Design Challenge Submission Deadline: February 2, 2026
STUDENT DESIGN CHALLENGE OVERVIEW
The SDC is an annual competition which provides undergraduate, masters-level, and terminal clinical doctorate students an opportunity to create, develop, and showcase assistive technology designs that help people with a variety of disabilities to live more independent lives. Students may be from any discipline but past participants have included representatives from engineering, computer information science, architecture, and rehabilitation science programs (i.e. physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and prosthetics and orthotics). PhD students are not eligible to participate in the SDC.
Projects are judged by a group of AT experts on originality, innovation, quality of design, and usefulness to persons with disabilities. The top five SDC teams chosen as finalists have an opportunity to present their design at both the Student Design Challenge and in the Developers' Showcase during RehabWeek 2025. After presentations are complete, first-, second-, and third-place rankings are determined and announced at the RESNA Awards Ceremony. The winning teams receive a monetary prize in addition to a complimentary RESNA student membership.
The first prize of $1,000 is supported by the Joey Wallace Educational Scholarship Fund in honor of Joey Wallace, an educator, mentor and beloved RESNA staff person. RESNA would like to thank the Joey Wallace Scholarship Fund for their continued support of and investment in the future generation of assistive technology professionals. Read more about the Joey Wallace Educational Scholarship Fund.
Student Programs Sponsor:
To visit the Student Design Challenge's website archive and read about our past winners, visit...