We’re excited to announce the winners of the 2023 Solve for Tomorrow Competition! Solve for Tomorrow 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.
In the 16-18 category, Joseph Birch from Bromley, 16, Ben Sindall from Epsom, 16, and Liam Bridgman from Beckenham, 17, were awarded 1st place with OLEO, a device that removes microplastics from polluted water using waste cooking oil from fast food chains and restaurants.
Kiara Taylor, 24, 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.
Joseph, who was delighted to be part of the team that won the 16-18 category, said he wanted to turn his passionate views on microplastic into a reality. He said: “We really hope we can further develop our idea and create an actual real-life product and business. We’ve worked with incredible people, like our mentor and some of the amazing people at Samsung – it has been such a great experience and we hope that continues.”
Kiara was thrilled to be crowned the winner of the 18-25 category and 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.”
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. 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.
Paul Scully, Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, who attended the Awards ceremony said: “It is truly inspiring to see our next generation demonstrate such passion for innovation. Technology is at the core of today’s society and not only can it be harnessed in the right way to empower people and the planet, but it also offers great future career options. Competitions such as Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, provide a positive platform to promote new voices, ideas and talent. It’s brilliant to see a technology leader such as Samsung create these opportunities for our young people in the UK.”
To find out more about Solve for Tomorrow, click here.
Well done Kiara, Joseph, Ben and Liam! 
Certainly great ideas on repurposing e waste and removing microplastics from polluted water.
Love this! ❤️ 😎 A couple of brilliant and wonderful ideas that show ingenuity, vision, and consideration of others and the planet. Congratulations to all of the winners!
