Meet Alumni:

Annie Katz

2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge Finalist
2026 Alumni Grant Recipient

Annie was awarded the Science in Your Community Grant for her work on “MedTech Impact Project,” a student-led initiative that designs and delivers personalized, low-cost assistive technology for children with disabilities by bringing hands-on engineering directly into local communities.

About their Project

The MedTech Impact Project is a student-led initiative to design and build personalized assistive technology for children with disabilities in the Westchester community. Many assistive devices available today are expensive, designed for adults, and not tailored to a child’s specific motor, sensory, or developmental needs. As a result, families often go without tools that could significantly improve independence and quality of life. This project addresses that gap by bringing engineering directly into the community and creating custom, low-cost solutions built specifically for each child.

This initiative builds on my experience as a 3M Young Scientist Challenge alumna and my work developing wearable assistive technologies through programs including MIT Beaver Works, Yale’s Healthcare Hackathon, and independent engineering projects, including one going to ISEF.

The project will recruit student volunteers from The Leffell School and guide them through the full engineering design process of identifying needs, collaborating with families and specialists, prototyping solutions, and delivering finished devices at no cost to families.

With grant funding, I will expand this initiative into a structured program capable of designing and delivering at least 10 personalized assistive devices within the grant year, with open-source designs so other schools and student teams can replicate the model.

What was the inspiration behind your project?

My project was inspired by my younger sister, who has motor challenges, especially with her hands. Over the past two years, I have been building devices for her with mentorship from the MIT Beaver Works CreATe Challenge. Seeing how much custom tools can help one person made me want to reach more children.

I want to create adaptive toys and classroom tools that help kids with disabilities experience more joy, independence, and confidence. My goal is to level the playing field in both play and education, while also showing children what engineering can do for real people’s lives.