EmpathyTech Innovation Challenge | Drexel University | EmpathyTech 2026

What happens when the next generation of entrepreneurs starts by listening to people with lived experience? The EmpathyTech Innovation Challenge brings students from Drexel University's Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship together with people with disabilities to explore real-world challenges around independence, accessibility, and inclusion. Through direct collaboration, students work to transform lived experiences into ideas and potential solutions, using technology, design, and entrepreneurship as tools for meaningful change. In this session from EmpathyTech Philadelphia 2026, student teams present their ideas, share what they discovered, and reflect on what it means to innovate with people rather than simply for them. The Innovation Challenge reflects one of EmpathyTech's central beliefs: the people most affected by a challenge should help shape the solutions. 📍 Recorded October 7, 2026, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia. 🌐 Learn more about EmpathyTech: https://www.empathytech.org/ #EmpathyTech