The winners included an interactive therapeutic pet robot to apps that help the visually-impaired and those with special needs.

 

An interactive therapeutic pet robot for dementia patients called SP Buddy by Singapore Polytechnic, and a walking stick with technological features like a GPS tracker and monitoring sensors called SmartStick by Republic Polytechnic were some of the ideas that won top prizes at the recent grand finale of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. The competition was split into two categories – Secondary School and Institute of Higher Learning (IHL).

Back for its third edition this year, the Solve for Tomorrow competition encourages students to ideate and leverage technology to address social issues in the local community. At the grand finale, the finalists presented their ideas to a panel of judges who assessed the presentations based on the relevance to social issues in Singapore, practicality of the ideas, the role their innovation plays, and their overall presentation and delivery skills.

Ten finalist teams from the IHL category were shortlisted from a total of 153 teams, belonging to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), polytechnics and pre-university institutions, and they were further shortlisted to five winners. The other three winners included:

• An app called BetterLife by Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) provides users with a platform to monitor their mental health and progress, and support them in leading happier lifestyles.
• Elderly SAFE is a wheelchair integrated with a full non-electrical auto-brake system that prevents it from rolling backwards when on sloping surfaces.
• A stroke detection system called Strodesys.

For the Secondary School category, three winning teams were selected from a total of 85 teams. The ideas that won included:

• Nanyang Girls’ High School’s app called Alpha Lupi that helps migrant workers and Singaporeans communicate better.
• #JioME is an app by Pathlight School to create awareness about those with special needs. It also helps them integrate in society by connecting them with groups involved in sports and outdoor activities.
• An app by Pei Hwa Secondary School called Better Tomorrow that helps those visually-impaired recognise items and prevent them from getting hurt.

The winning teams from the IHL category each won S$10,000 worth of Samsung products, a S$5,000 cash cheque, a study trip to Seoul, Korea and internships at Samsung Electronics Singapore. In the Secondary School category, the winning teams were each awarded S$20,000 worth of Samsung products for their schools and a S$1,600 cash cheque.

 

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