Students Inspire with Ideas to Solve Social Issues in Singapore at Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition

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Bridging generational divide and alleviating lazy eye condition among range of social issues highlighted by tertiary student teams at the Solve for Tomorrow Grand Finale

SINGAPORE, 11 November 2014 – Student teams from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Singapore Management University today won the top prizes for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition with their technology-driven solutions that aim to bridge the cross-generational communication divide and alleviate lazy eye condition among children in Singapore respectively. This global competition was held in Singapore for the first time this year, underlining Samsung’s commitment to investing in the younger generation as the future leaders of Singapore.

All six finalist teams from polytechnics and universities are eligible for a $5,000 seed grant that will enable them to bring their projects to life and create real change for the local community. Students will be able to further develop their ideas and experiment with full prototyping at the IDA Labs’ newly launched lab space at the National Design Centre. They will also have access to mentors at the lab to help develop working solutions.

“Singaporean youth are increasingly socially conscious, and the students’ projects all touch on topical issues and real challenges that people in Singapore are facing today. The students used technology innovatively to conceptualise solutions that we believe can have a transformative effect on the social development of Singapore,” said Stanley Goh, Vice President, Marketing, Samsung Electronics Singapore. “We look forward to the development of working solutions that will benefit the community, and hope that Solve for Tomorrow will continue to inspire students to step up and create a positive change for people in Singapore.”

At the Grand Finale, held at the Jubilee Hall (Raffles Hotel), the six finalist teams pitched their ideas to a panel of esteemed judges: Ms. Claire Chiang, Senior Vice President of Banyan Tree Holdings; Ms. Karen Ngui, Managing Director and Head, Group Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank; and Mr. Stanley Goh, Vice President, Marketing, Samsung Electronics Singapore. They were judged on criteria including the innovative use of technology, relevance of the social issue in Singapore, and feasibility of their solution implementation.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow winners (in order of final placing)

Polytechnic category

1. First Words (Ngee Ann Polytechnic) – Bridging communication barriers across generations with a dialect translator mobile application.
2. We Assist You – WAY (Nanyang Polytechnic) – Ensuring safety for the elderly by keeping them connected to their caretaker through a mobile application built on Android and the Samsung Gear S platforms, and a specially designed product called WAY Band.
3. ADAM & FRIENDS (Republic Polytechnic) – Helping dementia patients collect their memories via a mobile application to aid their memory loss.

University category

1. Samsung Eyenovation (Singapore Management University) – Treating lazy eye (amblyopia) in children with a mobile application.
2. Team Envision (National University of Singapore) – A simple and intuitive function on mobile devices to better enable Singaporeans to help others.
3. SMaRT (National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore University of Technology and Design) – Alleviating overcrowding in public trains by sending real-time information on the capacity of each MRT carriage via a mobile application.

To view the finalist teams’ videos of their projects, please visit:
http://www.samsung.com/sg/solvefortomorrow

“We were impressed by the teams’ passion and how they demonstrated out-of-the-box thinking to use technology in interesting ways to reach out to community. I encourage more youth to step forward with their fresh ideas and new solutions to contribute back to the Singapore community,” said Claire Chiang, Senior Vice President of Banyan Tree Holdings.

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow was an opportunity to challenge ourselves to showcase our creativity and explore how technology can really make a difference to the people around us. We are excited to take this project forward and help children improve their lazy eye condition,” said Leonard Li from Samsung Eyenovation, a team comprising students from Singapore Management University.

The Solve for Tomorrow competition commenced in July this year, garnering submissions from over 530 students across the island and attracting close to 18,000 votes from members of the public to shortlist the six finalist teams. The top two winning teams each won $10,000 cash and Samsung GALAXY Tab S (10.5”) LTE, a study trip to Samsung Headquarters in Korea and internships at Samsung Electronics Singapore, in addition to the seed grants. The first runner-up teams and second runner-up teams each won $5,000 cash and $3,000 cash respectively and Samsung GALAXY Tab S (10.5”) LTE.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is supported by partners with strong synergies in vision: Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC) from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The guest-of-honour at the Grand Finale was Ms. Lena Goh, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, IDA.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs, cameras, home appliances, printers, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 286,000 people across 80 countries with annual sales of US$216.7 billion. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.

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