Samsung India has announced top 50 teams in its Gen-Z education and innovation competition ‘Solve for Tomorrow’. The youth competition, which is running for the first time in India, has seen teams from across the country respond and submit ideas to help tackle problems that India faces in the areas of education, environment, healthcare and agriculture. Three national winners stand a chance to get support of up to INR 1 crore and mentoring support for six months to take their ideas to the next level under the expert guidance of IIT Delhi.
Solve for Tomorrow got over 18,000 registrations from youth across cities, towns and villages who are eager to turn their ideas into action. Samsung India announced the launch of the inaugural edition of Solve for Tomorrow in June, aiming to provide a stage for India’s brightest young minds to come up with innovative ideas that can transform the lives of people and communities around them.
The chosen 50 teams, with youth aged between 16-22, are now through to the next phase of ‘Solve for Tomorrow’, where they will be further developing their ideas. With the support and expertise of Samsung’s knowledge partner Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi, the 50 teams will be mentored to help enhance their ideas. Among the top 50 teams, 62% want to solve problems of healthcare, 22% want to tackle challenges around environment, 10% are focused on problems around agriculture while 6% want to solve issues around education. Many of the solutions that the teams suggested will use new-age technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
In this phase, they will get training on the design thinking concept through online courses as well as at a bootcamp at IIT Delhi. Each of the 50 teams will also be assigned a campus buddy from IIT Delhi during the three-day bootcamp. Over two days at IIT Delhi, seasoned experts will guide the teams on how to build their first prototype and effectively pitch their ideas in front of an expert Samsung jury on Day 3. The jury will select the top 10 teams for the final pitch event in November 2022.
Along with the bootcamp, the top 50 teams will also be given a certificate of participation and vouchers worth INR 100,000 for online courses in design thinking, STEM, innovation, leadership, among others. The top 10 teams will get the opportunity to visit Samsung India offices and its R&D centers where they will interact with young Samsung employees and researchers. They will also experience the Samsung product ecosystem at the iconic Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru.
“Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow initiative will help strengthen the innovation ecosystem of India. Such platforms are important for creating innovators in the country. It is amazing to see young minds come up with ideas that solve the problems in different parts of the country. We are optimistic that Solve for Tomorrow will empower Indian youth to create a sustainable future,” said Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi.
