'Solve for Tomorrow' contest launched

New Delhi: One of the largest electronic brands, Samsung, has launched a new youth-centric national education and innovation competition called Solve for Tomorrow on Thursday, inviting India's brightest young minds to come up with innovative ideas that may transform lives of people and communities around them.

Launching its maiden event, Samsung has said that it 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 edition of this year, the competition is inviting ideas in the areas of education, environment, healthcare, and agriculture, the priority UN Sustainable Development Goals for India. The event participation would 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 the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to help enhance their ideas, along with a boot-camp at IIT Delhi, a certificate of participation, and vouchers worth Rs. 1,00,000 for online courses in design thinking, STEM, innovation, leadership, and more.

Mr. Ken Kang, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said, "At Samsung, harnessing the power of youth is a priority. This is what drives us and our global CSR vision of 'Together for Tomorrow! Enabling People', seeks to empower the next generation to achieve their full potential and pioneer positive social changes. Solve for Tomorrow also takes us a step ahead in our vision of 'Powering Digital India' as the country's strongest partner."

The top 10 teams will get the opportunity to visit Samsung India offices, its Research and Development centers, and Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru where they will interact with the company's 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 Rs. 1 crore and mentoring support for six months under the expert guidance of IIT Delhi.

Professor Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi, said, "With 'Solve for Tomorrow' initiative, we are looking at prospective innovations with impact potential to address the future challenges faced by society.

This partnership will enable young change-makers to explore wider opportunities and provide a platform for activating and nurturing their ideas."

The company has officially launched the participation portal from June 9, 2022 and the registration is open till July 31, 2022. A jury comprising of subject matter experts from FITT, IIT Delhi will shortlist the top 50 teams from among all the applications received, based on a selection criterion such as optimum use of technology (app, product, or service), creativity, originality of the idea, the feasibility of the solution with current technology, the potential to positively impact society or the environment and the potential to reach its intended target audience.