Samsung has announced the top three winners of the inaugural edition of Solve for Tomorrow in India, its national education and innovation competition that aims at supporting youth from around the country wanting to solve real life issues and transform people’s lives with their innovative ideas.
Solve for Tomorrow is a CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiative by Samsung.
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The top three winning teams – Sputnik Brain, Udaan, and Alpha Monitor – get a total grant of ₹1 crore and a 6-month incubation by the Foundation for Innovation & Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi, to strengthen their prototypes, and seek real-world consumer validation for their products and services.
Each of the winning teams received a certificate and a beautiful Solve for Tomorrow trophy that is inspired by the programme logo and expresses boldness and aspiration. Each team member also received exciting Samsung products – a Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 laptop and Samsung Galaxy Buds2. The winning teams also got an 85-inch Samsung Flip interactive digital board each for their respective school or college.
Sputnik Brain’s Shankar Srinivasan, a 22-year-old from Bengaluru, presented a wearable device that helps reduce stress using safe brain modulation while the all-girl trio of Prisha Dubey, Anupriya Nayak and Vanalika Konwar of Udaan, 16-year-olds from Port Blair and Delhi, have developed eco-friendly, affordable and washable sanitary pads using shredded sugarcane bagasse. 16-year-old Hemesh Chadalavada of Alpha Monitor from Hyderabad, has developed a smart wristband to monitor Alzheimer’s patients and alert their caregivers about changes in their behaviour.
The top three winning teams were selected at the Solve for Tomorrow Grand Finale event in New Delhi, where the top ten teams made their final pitches and showcased their prototypes to an esteemed Grand Jury. The jury comprised of entrepreneur and mentor Ankur Warikoo, Dr. Anil Wali, Managing Director of FITT, IIT Delhi,
Dr. Archana Chugh, Professor at IIT Delhi and Dipesh Shah, Managing Director of Samsung R&D Institute – Bangalore.
At the gala evening – felicitation and awards ceremony – attended by top executives and employees of Samsung, the Grand Jury, representatives from FIIT & IIT Delhi, mentors and families of the team members, each member of the top 10 teams were presented a certificate from Samsung and IIT Delhi and a hamper comprising Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 laptop and Samsung Galaxy Buds2.
In June this year, as part of its Solve for Tomorrow programme, Samsung invited 16-22 year-olds in India to come up with innovative ideas in the areas of education, environment, healthcare and agriculture, the priority UN Sustainable Development Goals for India, with the aim of transforming the lives of people around them. The program offered to provide support to youth to turn their ideas into action. A record 18,000 plus registrations were received in the inaugural edition.
“Youth has the power to innovate and solve the biggest challenges of the world. All the young Solvers are the future of India,” Ken Kang, President & CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said at the trophy and prize presentation ceremony. “They have the potential to change India and the world,” he said. “We are proud of them and will work with them to turn their ideas into action and transform the lives of people.”
Commending the initiative, Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi, said- “in its very first year, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow has managed to emerge as a strong enabler for the Indian innovation ecosystem, creating an exciting community of young innovators. FITT and IIT Delhi are looking forward to incubating and mentoring the top three winners and help them take their ideas to the next level.”
Congratulating the winners, Samsung Southwest Asia’s CSR & Communications head Partha Ghosh said: “we are overwhelmed by the response to the inaugural edition of Solve for Tomorrow. The Jury found it extremely tough to choose the Top Three Winners as all the participants had brilliant ideas. We congratulate all the three winners and are delighted to support them in their future journey to unlock their full potential and strengthen our vision of Powering Digital India.”
A nugget about Shankar Srinivasan, the innovator of wearable device for stress reduction:
Shankar Srinivasan of Sputnik Brain is working on a wearable device that will help reduce stress by productizing pleasure through safe brain modulation. He wants to tackle the global issue of fatal stress and fulfilling the unmet need for a chemical & adverse-effect free tech. His safe brain modulation wearable device for mental health transmits waves within the FDA’s limit of frequency, intensity, and Pulse Repetition Period to mood centers in the brain. Considering stress causes high blood pressure, hypertension and a host of other issues, Shankar decided to work on an innovation to reduce stress. For his innovation, he has been constantly cross checking and validating his idea with reputed doctors, biomedical engineers, neuroscientists and expert clinicians.
Smart wristband to monitor Alzheimer: Hemesh Chadalavada of Alpha Monitor has developed a smart wristband to monitor Alzheimer’s patients and alert their caregivers about changes in their behaviour. The device monitors the patient’s health parameters such as pulse and blood pressure and the caregiver and doctor are automatically alerted if the patient gets out of bed and starts wandering. Hemesh’s grandmother is also an Alzheimer’s patient and would wander at abnormal times, without the caregivers knowing. She needs to be taken the doctor every week for her reports.
The top 10 teams in the competition, with ideas around environmental conservation, making healthcare more accessible, menstrual hygiene for rural women and stress management, were mentored by experts from Samsung and its knowledge partner FITT, IIT Delhi over a six-week period. They helped fine-tune their ideas and build a prototype that the teams showcased at the finale pitch event.
The teams also visited Samsung India’s headquarters in Gurugram and its R&D and Design centers in Bengaluru and Noida, where they interacted with young Samsung employees and researchers. They also experienced the Samsung product ecosystem and innovations at the iconic Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru.
The Top 50 teams selected by FITT, IIT Delhi and experts at Samsung, received training on design thinking at a three-day Bootcamp at IIT Delhi. Here they pitched to a Samsung jury to get selected amongst the Top 10 teams. At the end of the Bootcamp, each of the Top 50 team members was awarded a certificate of participation and vouchers worth ₹ 1 lakh for online courses in design thinking, STEM, innovation, and leadership, among others.
