Samsung and SITA launches ‘Solve For Tomorrow’ school competition

Samsung South Africa, in partnership with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), has launched the “Solve for Tomorrow” school competition in Bryanston.

The competition aimed at giving grade 10 and 11 learners from underserved communities an opportunity to gain invaluable skills while solving some of the challenges within their communities through Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

This unique competition has been designed to increase interest and proficiency in STEM education. This contest started in January this year and teams in various schools were advised to register via an online form on the Solve for Tomorrow website. Supervising teachers at each of the selected schools were requested to oversee the teams participating in the competition.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition has – since 2010 – been challenging public school students to dream, develop and build real-world solutions to enact positive change. This programme has reached over 1.5 million contestants in more than 30 countries around the world by 2020.

Samsung South Africa in partnership with SITA has, from this year piloted this Solve for Tomorrow contest with 51 pre-selected schools nationally - encouraging innovative thinking, creative problem-solving and teamwork to nurture social innovation ideas that can address various communities’ most pressing problems.

Hlubi Shivanda, Director of Business Operations and Innovation and Corporate Affairs at Samsung South Africa said: “As Samsung, we have long-recognised the philosophy of investing in the country’s technological advancement as this is intrinsically linked to economic growth. This is why Samsung is spearheading large-scale ICT-driven initiatives aimed at enabling previously underserved societies and introducing disruptive innovation that contributes to superior networks that reach remote areas.”

In conjunction with SITA, Samsung used the launch event as a platform to announce the 2023 Top 10 schools, out of 51 participants nationally, who will go through to Phase Two - where they will tackle an emerging challenge and produce tangible innovations to help improve society with the help of assigned Samsung employee-mentors.

Samsung is enabling these learners by giving them funding for prototypes, taking them to a design thinking workshop and sponsoring every school with a Samsung tablet and data to help them do research.

The final stage of the competition will be an opportunity for each school to present the prototype of their solution to a panel of judges with the potential to win STEM equipment for their schools worth R100 000 (1st place), R50 000 or R30 000 (2nd and 3rd places respectively). In addition to the main prizes, each of the learners in the top three teams will be rewarded with a Samsung device.

The Top 10 schools that have been selected include:

Government believes that the most effective and sustainable way to build an economy is to equip young people with the skills and know-how to drive it, thus its efforts are focused on strengthening the link between the skills that are developed and those needed by the workplace. This is what motivated state-owned agency SITA to be part of the initiative.

Samsung shares the government's view that South Africa now more than ever, needs to equip the youth to seize the opportunities that lie in the ICT sector. The company recognises that education and beneficiation are the cornerstones of the country’s future and are requirements for it to be a major player in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Head of Corporate Affairs at SITA, Tlali Tlali, said the state-owned entity found some synergies between its work and Samsung’s efforts in the area of corporate social responsibility.

“When we speak of public-private partnerships, this is about collaboration in working towards achieving meaningful progress. Our country has an unfortunate past of inequality and we need to do something about it,” said Tlali.

“As like-minded organisations in technology, this partnership seeks to do just that as we redress the imbalances of the past, empower the youth and shape South Africa to be able to be counted among the top nations. We’re happy and proud to be associated and working with Samsung in this initiative.”

The Solve For Tomorrow competition is a carefully curated programme which is supported by 10 of Samsung employee-mentors from various disciplines in the Samsung business, who also have a passion and interest in STEM. These mentors act as a support structure to the learners.

“We believe that this community and youth-driven initiative is but one of the ways that we are using to embrace digital transformation in South Africa, by continuing to harness the power of technology and innovation to effect great positive change in the country. We are convinced that investment in South Africa through digital transformation will contribute positively towards sustainable future economic growth,” added Shivanda.