Toys are a cherished part of our childhoods. We have memories of our firsts, our favorites, and that one you just couldn't live without. Whatever the item may be, it’s an intricate part of our childhood and allows us to explore our imagination. However, conventional toys you see at retail stores aren’t always accessible to everyone. This is where EZDapt comes in; they took on the Cleantech Challenge this year by directly targeting this problem.
EZDapt was founded by a group of four students; Nicholas Lekas, a graduate student pursuing a degree in radio communication systems design; Danaya Murphy, an undergraduate electrical engineering student; Aiden Tuen, an undergraduate business management student; and Ben Crall studying electrical engineering.
The idea started through Lekas’ volunteer work for a non-profit organization that was adapting ride-on toy cars for children with mobility impairments. “They used convoluted, not great methods to adapt their toys. I saw an opportunity to help them make it easier for them to adapt toys for kids,” says Lekas. However, the beginning of their journey wasn’t always a straight line.
“We had to pivot from our original idea because we did market research and also technical analysis and found that our ideas were insufficient in capturing the consumer’s needs and our needs as an entity,” shares Traun. To better prepare for future challenges that might arise, the team plans to hone its market research to better understand its target market. Beyond the struggles they’ve faced, EZDapt has paid tribute to the Cleantech Challenge as an ecosystem for entrepreneurship.
“For us, what we would like to get out of the Cleantech Challenge is the experience and know-hows of entrepreneurship. The Cleantech Challenge will be a great way to sort of test out the waters and see how we can adapt to these changing environments,” adds Tuen.
Murphy adds to this by saying, “EZDapt started out as a way for us to try to get accessible devices to kids, but EZDapt has developed into something greater than that. We are trying to be a community for people. We’re trying to bring accessible devices to a wider group of people. We’re a community.”
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