Samsung Electronics has today launched the inaugural edition of Solve for Tomorrow, a new youth-centric national education and innovation competition. The brand is inviting India’s brightest young minds to come up with innovative ideas that can transform the lives of people and communities around them.
Samsung aims to provide support to youth in India aged 16-22 years from across cities, towns and villages to turn their ideas to solve real-world issues into action. In the first year, Solve for Tomorrow is inviting ideas in the areas of Education, Environment, Healthcare and Agriculture, the priority UN Sustainable Development Goals for India.
Support will include mentoring of the top 50 teams (individuals or teams of up to 3 members) by industry experts and Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT Delhi) to help enhance their ideas, along with a boot-camp at IIT Delhi, 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, its R&D centres and Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru where they will interact with young Samsung employees and researchers.
The annual program will end with the grand announcement of three national winners, who stand a chance to get mega 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.
Participants can apply for Solve for Tomorrow, get detailed information on the program and terms and conditions at www.samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow, starting June 09, 2022 till 5 pm, July 31, 2022.
Application Window – Round One
Individuals or teams of up to three can submit their applications on www.samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow, where they will elaborate on the problem they are solving, the proposed solution and its social impact.
A jury comprising of subject matter experts from FITT, IIT Delhi will shortlist top 50 teams from among all the applications received, based on a selection criteria that includes the best use of technology (app, product or service), creativity, originality of idea, feasibility of the solution with current technology, potential to positively impact society or the environment and the potential to reach its intended target audience.
Idea Development – Round Two
In this round, the top 50 teams will be provided online training on design thinking and will attend a boot camp at IIT Delhi on developing a proof of concept. The teams will also get support from professors and mentors at IIT Delhi to detail out their ideas and start working on their early prototypes.
Each participant from the 50 selected teams will get a certificate of participation and course vouchers of up to INR 100,000 that gets them access to any online course relevant to design thinking, STEM, innovation, entrepreneurship, business skills, management and leadership.
Once teams submit videos on their ideas and prototypes, a jury panel of experts from Samsung will select 10 teams that will move to Round Three. The selection criteria for this round will include development of the idea since original submission, demonstrable use of research and/or testing to understand needs of the target audience, demonstration of design thinking and quality of presentation.
Final Prototype Building – Round Three
Top 10 teams will be given next level of online training covering topics such as prototyping and designing for manufacturing, introduction to business communication, funding opportunities and certifications as well as mentoring from experts at Samsung and IIT Delhi to prepare their ideas for the finale.
Teams will also visit Samsung facilities including its India Headquarters in Gurugram, its R&D centres in Noida and Bengaluru and the world’s largest mobile experience centre at the iconic Opera House in Bengaluru where they will interact with young Samsung employees and researchers.
At the end of this round, the teams will submit their final prototypes and prepare for a live presentation at the Finale Event in front of an eminent jury.
Top 10 teams will be given Samsung hampers worth INR 100,000, which will include exciting Samsung products.
Samsung will offer a total of up to INR 1 crore in grants to three winning teams, getting them one step closer to turn their ideas into their dream startups that can help address India’s key concerns in the areas of Agriculture, Education, Environment and Healthcare.
In addition, winning teams will also get an 85-inch Samsung Flip interactive digital board for their respective schools and colleges.
With the grant, winners will get the opportunity to work with mentors from IIT Delhi for a period of 6 months and get access to an incubation centre at the IIT Delhi campus. During these 6 months, they will work on their ideas and take it to the stage where they can seek consumer validation for their prototypes.