GURUGRAM, India – October 12, 2023 – Samsung India has announced the top three winning teams of Solve for Tomorrow 2023, its youth education and innovation competition. The winning teams are NIT Surat, which has developed an automated beach-cleaning robot called Sweep; Stemly, which has developed a conversational AI tool to help women choose STEM and Think, which has built a personal cooling device called ‘Kavach’ for those who work outdoors. The three teams received a total prize money of INR 1.5 crore to further improve their ideas and turn them into reality.
The flagship CSR programme, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, aims to empower the youth of the country to solve real life issues and transform the lives of people with their innovative ideas.
The winning teams were also awarded a certificate and a trophy, inspired by the spirit of innovation that the programme symbolises. All members of the Top 10 teams also received a certificate from Samsung, IIT Delhi and MeitY Startup Hub. They were also given Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy Z Flip5 smartphone and a cash prize of INR 100000.
NIT Surat’s Aditi Tapariya, Harshil Mistry and Vaibhav Gupta presented an automated robot called Sweep that cleans waste from beaches while Stemly’s Yash Yadav showcased a conversational AI tool that solves gender bias by helping women choose STEM subjects. Mukkabir Rahman, Ankush Yadav, Varsha KJ of Think have made a wearable device that prevents individuals from experiencing extreme heat and cold.
The three winning teams were selected after the Grand Finale event in New Delhi where the top 10 teams of the competition made their final pitches and showcased their prototypes to the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury comprised of Mr. Mohan Rao Goli, Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore; Mr. Shombi Sharp, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India and Dr. Archana Chugh, Professor, Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, IIT Delhi.
The finale event conducted in two parts – pitches by the Top 10 teams and awards ceremony – was attended by top executives and employees of Samsung, the Grand Jury, and representatives from the Foundation for Innovation & Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi and mentors of the 10 teams.
The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2023 journey started in April this year when Samsung invited ideas from 16-22-year-olds to solve problems around four themes – Education & Learning, Health & Wellness, Environment & Sustainability and Diversity & Inclusion. Over 6,500 teams from across 500 cities, towns and villages submitted their ideas of which the Top 30 teams were selected. These teams went through an intense bootcamp at IIT Delhi followed by a pitch in front of a Samsung jury to select the Top 10 teams.
The Top 10 teams, representing 25 young innovators, came from cities as diverse as Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh, Lakhimpur and Golaghat in Assam, Darjeeling in West Bengal, Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Ernakulam in Kerala, besides Chennai and Delhi.
Presenting the trophy and the prize money to the winners, Mr. JB Park, President & CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia said: “Youth has the power to think out of the box and bring innovations to life. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a platform to nurture this thinking and we are extremely proud to see young innovators have the ambition to change the world and transform the lives of people. We congratulate all the winners of Solve for Tomorrow 2023 and wish them the best for an exciting journey ahead. At Samsung, we firmly believe that each one of the young innovators hold the promise of contributing significantly to India’s growth story.”
“Solve for Tomorrow is creating an exciting community of young innovators and we are delighted to partner with Samsung to encourage these innovators to find solutions to some of the most pressing problems of the society today,” said Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi.
“The young teams of Solve for Tomorrow 2023 have really outdone themselves. They have shown that the youth of today really want to contribute to making the lives of people better with their innovations. The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow initiative is turning into an incubator-of-sorts for these young innovators who will build a new India,” said Mr. Jeet Vijay, CEO, MeitY Startup Hub.
Know the three winners of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2023
NIT Surat – The team of Aditi Tapariya, Harshil Mistry and Vaibhav Gupta from Surat, Gujarat is out to address the accumulation of harmful waste on beaches and its impact on the environment and marine ecosystems. The team has developed an automated beach-cleaning robot called Sweep. This programmable robot is equipped with optimum sensors that can detect, identify and segregate different kinds of waste materials based on their recyclability. The robot will be capable of traversing difficult terrains and autonomously navigate through a specified area at regular intervals.
Stemly – Yash Yadav from Nagpur, Maharashtra is seeking to tackle the stereotypes and gender bias in STEM sciences. Stemly’s conversational AI tool uses natural language processing and AI techniques integrated with positive reinforcement by sharing the experiences of leading women in STEM, providing updates on recent advancements, offering mentorship, and learning opportunities, delivering encouraging messages, and connecting users with STEM specialists. This tool also integrates data from user inputs, along with their academic performance, teacher evaluations, sentiment analysis and self-surveys to personalize their ongoing positive interventions.
Think – The team of Mukkabir Rahman, Ankush Yadav, and Varsha KJ from Golaghat, Assam has built a cooling device called Kavach that is a lightweight and cost-effective device to regulate body temperature for extended durations during extreme weather. It harnesses cutting-edge semiconductor technology to eliminate the hassles of traditional cooling methods. Kavach is positioned as a neckband, targeting the body’s optimal cooling area. By cooling this specific region, the prototype facilitates rapid changes in body temperature, offering an effective solution to combat heat. Additionally, it can provide warmth when needed, making it a versatile solution for maintaining comfort in a wide range of temperature conditions, from hot and humid to cooler environments.
Over the last 12 weeks, experts from Samsung and FITT, IIT Delhi mentored the top 10 teams of the competition. These teams came up with ideas to solve real-world problems ranging from converting seawater into potable water, identifying pests and diseases in crops, food wastage, cleaning beaches, developing a more sustainable leather tanning process to providing more access to individuals with hearing loss. Their ideas also seek to bridge the communication gap with sign language users, find missing children, help individuals stay cool in the summers and help the visually impaired to read.
This mentoring process helped the teams refine their ideas and facilitated the development of prototypes, which the teams ultimately presented at the Grand Finale.
These 10 teams also featured in a TV series that was produced by the News18 Group and was telecast on their national channels as well as the OTT platform, JioCinema.
Solve for Tomorrow was originally introduced in the United States in 2010 and has since expanded to 63 countries worldwide. To date, over 2.3 million young individuals have participated in this competition, making it a global platform for fostering innovation and creating social impact.
As part of its global CSR vision of ‘Together for Tomorrow, Enabling People’, Samsung believes in using innovation to positively transform communities and create a better life for people through its citizenship initiatives. Empowering youth through education is one of the best ways we can prepare our young people to boldly face the world of the future.
Samsung Newsroom Link: Top 3 Teams from Surat, Nagpur and Golaghat with a Beach Cleaning Robot, an AI Tool to Help Women Choose STEM and a Low-Cost Personal Cooling Device Win Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2023
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