AbilityPath
Inspiring inclusion for families with special needs
Challenge
How might we design a seamless, mobile-first intelligent chatbot that dynamically guides families and adults with developmental disabilities through eligibility, prepare documents, automates program matching and scheduling, and manages all follow-up steps—creating a welcoming, supportive front door while significantly reducing staff administrative workload?
Background Context
AbilityPath wants to create a welcoming, 24/7 digital "front door" for families and adults seeking services. Today, the San Andreas Regional Center (SARC) intake and referral process is highly manual — families juggle phone calls, emails, paperwork, and long wait times, often repeating the same information. This creates frustration, delays enrollment, and consumes valuable staff time.
A mobile-friendly, multilingual chatbot could guide families through eligibility, required documents, and scheduling while also helping match each individual to the most appropriate AbilityPath program (e.g., Independent Living Services, Employment, Day Programs). For complex or urgent cases, the chatbot can provide warm handoffs to staff.
Meet Your AbilityPath Collaborators
Bryan Neider
Chief Executive Officer
AbilityPath
Steve D'Eredita
Chief Financial Officer
AbilityPath
Chelsea Farrington
Director of Day Programs
AbilityPath
Brie Hornig
Administrative Director
AbilityPath
Sammy Rotich
Information Technology Director
AbilityPath
Reggie Pablo
Director of Independent Living Services
AbilityPath
Amaan Shafiq
Donor Database Associate
AbilityPath
Asian Art Museum
Connecting communities through art and culture
Challenge
How might we create an interactive digital experience that brings Asian Art Museum's collections to life, helping visitors — especially students — engage with artworks, explore their stories, and deepen their understanding in an educational and playful way?
Background Context
The Asian Art Museum holds a renowned collection of artworks and sculptures, each with rich historical and cultural context. However, many visitors — particularly school groups — often lack the background knowledge needed to fully appreciate these pieces.
The museum is exploring how AI and emerging technologies can power an interactive collections experience that animates artworks and sculptures, provides accessible background information, and shares insights from curators. The goal is to educate and engage younger audiences, especially students visiting on school tours, by offering interactive, group-friendly experiences on devices like touchscreens or mobile phones (voice interaction may be less suitable due to noise and group dynamics).
Meet Your Asian Art Museum Collaborators
Mark Sabb
Director of Digital Content
Asian Art Museum
Reuben Kim
Content Strategy Manager
Asian Art Museum
Center for Independent Living
Access for All - Empowering disability community
Challenge
How might we integrate AI in a way that simplifies check-in, service tracking, scheduling, and delivery coordination for the people we serve and the staff who support them?
Background Context
At The Center for Independent Living, we strive to create a welcoming, empowering environment for people with disabilities and the volunteers who support them. Yet today, even a simple task like checking in can feel frustrating and inefficient.
Both consumers and volunteers still sign in on paper sheets, creating delays, confusion, and blind spots in tracking service activity and volunteer hours. Staff must juggle manual processes — confirming arrivals, assigning services, checking calendars, booking rooms, and recording visits — while also trying to stay present for the people they serve. Deliveries and packages often arrive without a clear way to notify or coordinate with staff, adding even more interruptions.
We envision an integrated digital solution that allows consumers and volunteers to check in using a phone number or email, automatically log volunteer hours, trigger real-time staff notifications when someone arrives, and track deliveries intended for staff. AI could assist intake by identifying needs, matching consumers to staff availability, and booking appointments or reserving rooms based on calendar and room availability. After each visit, follow-up surveys could capture feedback and measure impact.
This would transform a fragmented, paper-heavy process into a coordinated, accessible, and welcoming journey — reducing staff burden, empowering volunteers, and ensuring every visitor feels supported from arrival to departure.
Meet Your CIL Collaborators
Laurence Carew
Technology Consultant
Center for Independent Living
Rachel Beasley
Database Admin
Center for Independent Living
Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda
Executive Director
Center for Independent Living
Children's Health Council
Supporting children's mental health and development
Challenge
How might we evolve Ellis (CHC's digital tool) to better equip educators — from understanding student needs without compromising privacy, to practicing challenging scenarios, to supporting their ongoing professional growth — so they feel confident and prepared to help every student thrive?
Background Context
Children's Health Council (CHC) has been a trusted nonprofit serving children, families, and educators for over 40 years. Based in Palo Alto, CHC provides clinical services, community education, and advocacy focused on learning differences, mental health, and development. With expertise across psychology, education, and child development, CHC supports thousands of families each year while also shaping best practices nationwide.
In response to the growing crisis in student mental health and learning challenges—where 1 in 5 students struggles and most educators report feeling underprepared—CHC created Ellis, an AI-powered resource for K–12 educators. Ellis uses generative AI and a rigorously curated knowledge base to provide teachers with real-time, scenario-specific strategies for supporting students in the classroom. Educators simply describe a situation, and Ellis instantly offers evidence-aligned recommendations to help them respond with confidence and care.
With funders including Google.org and the Oak Foundation, Ellis is currently in pilot phase, with the goal of reaching 50,000 educators nationwide in the next 2–3 years. By equipping teachers with timely, trusted support, Ellis aims to transform classrooms into places where every student—regardless of mental health or learning differences—has the opportunity to thrive.
Meet Your CHC Collaborators
Cindy Lopez
Senior Director of Community Engagement
Children's Health Council
Leo Heffler
Senior Director of Product Management
Children's Health Council
Healthy Black Families
Promoting health equity in Black communities
Challenge
How might we use technology to amplify Black community voices—capturing both stories and lived experiences alongside data—so policymakers, institutions, and foundations act with greater equity and accountability?
Background Context
The Black community continues to face systemic barriers in education, health, economic opportunity, and civic engagement. While quantitative data is often used to inform decisions, it rarely reflects the full depth of community realities.
Qualitative data—voices, narratives, and lived experiences—is vital for shaping solutions that resonate and drive change. By creating regenerative, community-centered tools that elevate both numbers and narratives, we can strengthen advocacy, influence policy, and ensure resources are distributed more equitably. This challenge calls on participants to design technologies that transform community voice into measurable impact.
Meet Your HBF Collaborators
Debbie Hailu
TOS Program Coordinator
Healthy Black Families
Akilah Shaheed
Communications & Strategic Business Associate
Healthy Black Families
Wilhelmenia Wilson
Executive Director
Healthy Black Families
MedCycle Network
Recycling medical supplies to reduce waste
Challenge
How might we use AI to predict short-term, hyperlocal demand for medical supplies at safety-net clinics, enabling MedCycle Network to proactively match and deliver surplus supplies — keeping them near the point of care to cut emissions and save clinics time and money?
Background Context
Every year, the U.S. healthcare system discards tens of billions of dollars' worth of high-quality surplus medical supplies, while safety-net clinics serving uninsured and underinsured patients struggle to secure the basics. This mismatch delays care, deepens health inequities, and creates needless environmental waste.
MedCycle Network collects surplus medical supplies and equipment from hospitals and redistributes them free of charge to safety-net clinics. Our decentralized, hyperlocal logistics model keeps materials close to where they'll be used. Our next step is to add a predictive, AI-driven layer to anticipate clinic demand and create timely, location-specific offers — streamlining operations, cutting emissions, and maximizing impact.
Meet Your MedCycle Collaborators
Eric Talbert
CEO & Co-Founder
MedCycle Network
Andy Pines
Board Chair & Co-Founder
MedCycle Network
Sacred Heart Community Service
Building stronger, self-sufficient communities
Challenge
How might we create a smarter volunteer onboarding and engagement platform that helps volunteers quickly find the right opportunities and stay connected over time?
Background Context
Sacred Heart Community Service serves families experiencing poverty in Silicon Valley. We operate multiple programs including food assistance, housing support, and family services, all supported by a large volunteer base that needs better coordination and engagement tools.
Meet Your Sacred Heart Collaborators
Vanessa Hernandez
Community & Corporate Partnership Manager
Sacred Heart Community Service
Stanford Rural Education Action Program
Improving educational outcomes in rural China
Challenge
How might we design a digital tool that helps rural caregivers of 0–3-year-old children in China easily access and apply trusted parenting guidance beyond their weekly in-person classes, so they feel supported and motivated to use it in daily life?
Background Context
The Stanford REAP, supported by the Enlight Foundation, focuses on improving early childhood development for children aged 0–3 in rural China by providing high-quality parenting solutions. Over the years, the team has created a rich library of trusted educational content and delivers weekly community-based parenting classes for local caregivers.
Their next step is to create a digital tool that allows these caregivers to access timely, practical parenting information outside the weekly sessions. The goal is to help parents stay engaged, feel supported in their daily routines, and apply evidence-based guidance to better support the healthy growth and development of their young children.
Meet Your Stanford REAP Collaborators
Linda Wang
Director of Programs
Enlight Foundation
Dr. Yuyin Xiao
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Stanford Center on China's Economy & Institutions