Samsung: Samsung announces top 30 teams of ‘Solve for Tomorrow 2023’; winners to get trained by IIT Delhi and MeitY Startup Hub – Times of India

Samsung India has announced top 30 teams in its flagship youth education and innovation competition ‘Solve for Tomorrow’. With an aim to foster a culture of innovative thinking and problem-solving among the nation’s youth, the competition invited ideas from 16-22-year-olds to solve problems around four themes – Education; Learning, Health; Wellness; Environment; Sustainability and Diversity; and Inclusion.
Solve for Tomorrow 2023 has seen teams from across the country respond and submit ideas to help tackle problems that India faces. The competition got over 70,000 registrations from youth across 500 cities, towns and villages, symbolic of the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of Bharat.
For the second year of the CSR program, Samsung India has partnered with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s (MeitY’s) Startup Hub and Foundation for Innovation Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi.
Among the top 30 teams, 44% presented ideas around the themes of Education; Learning, 23% on Environment, Sustainability, 20% on Diversity; Inclusion and 13% on Health; Wellness. These teams represent 15 states and 1 union territory of India including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Assam, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi.
Youth from the top 30 teams have submitted ideas to solve real-world problems around converting sea water into potable water, drinking and driving, skilling of youth, improving efficiency of solar panels and finding missing children. Their ideas also focus on early detection of many diseases in women using menstrual blood samples, mental health, food wastage, identifying diseases in crops, safeguarding teenagers against inappropriate content, and addressing gender bias in STEM fields, among others.
“At Samsung, we believe in harnessing the power of our youth which resides in their skills and abilities to drive positive social changes. Our flagship CSR program Samsung Solve for Tomorrow taps into the spirit of innovation in the minds of the country’s youth. We are excited about the 70,000 plus registrations we have received. The top 30 teams we have selected will move to the next phase of the competition and we are keen to see how their ideas shape up going forward, contributing to Powering Digital India,” said Hyun Kim, Corporate Vice President, Samsung Southwest Asia.
“We are happy to associate with the Solve for Tomorrow program. The selected young teams from all over the country will provide innovative solutions to problems that India and the world face. Initiatives like this will help transform and strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem. We are excited to train and support these budding innovators,” said Prof Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi.
These top 30 teams will receive online training on design thinking and innovation and will be mentored by Samsung and its partners – Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi and MeitY Startup Hub at a residential bootcamp at IIT Delhi, helping participants enhance their ideas.
The top 30 teams will also get Rs 20,000 each to create initial prototypes and then pitch their ideas to a jury of young Samsung employees under the guidance of experts from FITT, IIT Delhi and MeitY Startup Hub.
This jury will select the top 10 teams for the finale.
These top 30 teams will also get the opportunity to visit Samsung India offices, its R&D centres, design centre and Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru where they will interact with Samsung employees and researchers.