Kiara Taylor, 24, has been awarded £10,000 in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow competition.
The competition seeks to give young people in the UK & Ireland the opportunity to gain skills and receive top-tier advice from leading industry experts, giving them a roadmap for the future, and a creative space to develop exciting new technology for good.
Kiara, from Sandhurst, Berkshire, was awarded 1st place in the 18-25 category with ReGrow, which repurposes e-waste to make a low-cost irrigation system aimed at farmers in Ghana to help them increase their crop yield.
Speaking about her victory, Kiara said, “This competition will allow me to develop my idea further, which will involve second round prototyping and testing, and looking at how to actually implement it in Ghana, which is my target country, which is obviously different to the UK, so that will be really interesting.”
“I learned how to build a business, and especially as a young person, I don’t have that much industry experience, so it was really helpful meeting the mentors and experts who have done it already, and also meeting the other contestants who are all in the same boat as you.”
In the 16-18 category, Joseph Birch, 16, from Bromley, Ben Sindall, 16, from Epsom, and Liam Bridgman, 17, from Beckenham, were awarded 1st place with OLEO, a device that removes microplastics from polluted water using waste cooking oil from fast food chains and restaurants.
The Solve for Tomorrow Competition is designed for 16-25 years olds as part of Samsung’s key mission to use technology for social good. Every year, the competition is open to young people from all backgrounds with no experience or qualifications needed, empowering the next generation of creators and innovators to carve a new path in the tech world and drive positive change.
The core themes of the competition are solving obstacles related to Education, Sustainability, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Social Isolation. Each finalist has been through a series of workshops and received expert mentoring from a range of Samsung leaders, in areas spanning from Marketing to Connected Technologies to help hone their skills and develop their creative ideas.
Since last year, the prize offering has been enhanced, meaning the winners from each age group will receive £10,000 each, paired with three months of focused mentoring from the Startup Discovery School – a new programme that aims to help young people become entrepreneurs. The Startup Discovery School builds bespoke innovation programmes for startups and businesses that are solving global challenges, such as climate change and environmental and social sustainability issues. Throughout the competition, the Startup Discovery School designed and delivered workshops to the contestants to help expand their innovative capabilities. Two runners-up from each age category will also receive £1,000 each, to encourage the participants to continue to dream big and keep creating. All finalists will also receive a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.
Speaking about the competition, Soohyun Jessie Park, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Samsung Electronics UK, said, “Solve for Tomorrow has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, fuelled by the unbridled talent and enthusiasm of our participants who raise the bar each time with their ideas to improve the world around them.”
“This year’s competition has again encouraged us all to look at what is possible and push the boundaries using technology.”
“We can’t wait to see where our winners take their ideas next.”
You can find out more about the competition and all of the finalists here.
