TIPeD, a program funded by NCIIA, serves as a model program to enhance assistive technology innovation through product development teams. The goals of TIPeD are to develop cross-disciplinary teams (engineering, business, law, rehab) to create products to improve the lives of people with disabilities, develop promising business plans, secure pilot funding to launch ventures, and improve the quality and increase the quantity of impactful technologies to support the social integration and independence of people with disabilities. The output of the projects are Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) proposals, which position teams to develop start-ups to commercialize the products. In the first year of the program, twelve students worked on four teams, resulting in four draft SBIR proposals. Student assessments reveal that the product development team mechanism is an effective way to teach students about the principles of participatory action design, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship.
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