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In addition to three Grand Prizes, teams will also be competing for prizes in specific areas:
Best inclusive design
Best accessible design
Best documentation
Additional prizes may be announced at a later time
Drawing Dreams
One-2-Go Portable Adaptive Toilet Seat
Talker Mount
Judges
Tamara Morgan
Community Partnerships Coordinator, Adaptive Design Association
Pascale Bercovitch
Paralympics athlete, TV personality and international motivational speaker and corporate adviser
Jaume Sanchez
Engineer, CEO of 3dthinks and Founder of TOM Barcelona. Winner, 2021 TOM Global Innovation Challenge
Dana Gur-Gelbard
Industrial Designer, Customer Experience & Project Manager at Matrix Experience. Winner, 2021 & 2022 TOM Global Innovation Challenges
Bryce Johnson
Principal Inclusive Designer,
Microsoft Inc.
Laura Marciano
CEO, Eli Innovation and Co-Founder,
TOM France
Nisreen Shahin
Entrepreneur, community leader,
TOM Palestine
Noam Platt
Healthcare architect and founder of Make Good INC. Winner, 2021 TOM Global Innovation Challenge
Prof. Katherine Raymond
Associate chair and senior professor of practice in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Tulane University
Shaikha Dwa Al Khalifa
PhD Candidate, Portsmouth University. Former lecturer, Royal University of Women. Former captain of the Bahrain Women’s National Football team
Lamia Housni
Innovation & Creativity Enthusiast I Entrepreneurship Catalyst
Robert Zacharias
Assistant Teaching Professor, IDeATe Center, manager of the IDeATe Physical Computing Lab, Carnegie Mellon University
David Dakovich
Maker and Product Development Expert. TOM Serbia Country Manager
Sawsan Masarwa
Designer, Educator, Social Entrepreneur in Israeli-Arab communities
About the 2023 TOM Global Innovation Challenge
The 2023 TOM Global Innovation Challenge is a competition among teams who have a passion to design, engineer, and create technological solutions that help others. Makers, engineers, students, designers, and care specialists will form teams that compete to create affordable, open-source solutions designed to address challenges people with disabilities are facing in their daily lives. Teams have the option to compete with new projects or submit existing solutions they previously developed.
For this year’s TOM Global Innovation Challenge we decided to incentivize the creation of solutions related to sports and athletic activity with special prizes. Teams who develop sports-related solutions may choose to focus on two main areas:
Recreational
Solutions that will help make popular recreational and leisure sports more accessible
for people with disabilities
Paralympic
Assistive devices that will help a specific athlete or team qualify for and compete in the
2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Please see how it works for more details about sports-related projects.
Special Recognition Award
Digitus - Typing Prosthesis
A bracelet with an adaptable connection that can securely and efficiently allow the user to type and use his mouse in the computer.
Project ILU - Adaptiver stylus
A customized modular learning system that focuses on improving his non-verbal communication through an iPad.
HappyWalk - Adaptive Walker
Low-cost, adjustable pediatric walker made of wood and 3D-printed plastic parts.
Bank Hapoalim Community Award:
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Jona - Wheelchair Seat Belt for Riding Toddlers
A belt that allows a wheelchair user to strap a toddler on their lap.
Category Winners
Best Inclusive Design
Handle It- Specialty Kitchenware with Adaptive grip
A set of serving dishes with customized, comfortable, and easy to hold handles.
Best Accessible Design
WMDT - Washing Machine Dial Turner
A socket on the end of a handle. The socket at the end of a handle that fits over the dial of a washing machine and can be easily turned with the help of the handle.
Best Documentation Page Turner - assistive reading device
A book holder equipped with a mechanism that can lift and turn a page. It is activated with eye detection using a USB webcam connected to a laptop.
Your GIC Project
Many people with disabilities and their families face challenges in almost every aspect of daily lives ranging from personal care, mobility, and the household to art, music, sports, and more. Your GIC project must address one (or more) of these challenges.
You will need to assemble your team, find a person with a disability, family member or caregiver (we call them “Need Knowers”), investigate their challenge, and develop a solution that best answers their needs.
The GIC is open for new and existing solutions which must be documented using TOM’s Project Editor following the TOM development process. The final submission (your Prototype and pitch video) will be evaluated and scored by the judges.
Assemble your team
Find a challenge
Create your solution
Submit for judging
Project Tracks
This year’s GIC features multiple tracks of projects. Each of the GIC projects should fall under one of these tracks which participants will choose during registration:
Sports & Outdoors
Solutions or assistive devices that will help make recreational and leisure sports more accessible for people with disabilities or help an athlete or team take part in competitions.
Humanitarian Response
Solutions or devices that provide assistance to people with disabilities in crisis situations such as natural disasters, war, displacement, injury, and recovery.
Music & Arts
Solutions or assistive devices that will help people with disabilities play a musical instrument or take part in any artistic activity such as painting, dance, and other forms of art.
Daily Living (general category)
Solutions that address the needs of a person with a disability in their daily lives in areas such as mobility, accessibility, household chores, personal hygiene, the workplace, and more.
A Grand Prize will be awarded to the best project in each track (see prizes below).