New software platform to support students and educators with exam preparation wins Samsung’s 2024 Solve for Tomorrow competition

Samsung Electronics Australia has today announced the winners of its 2024 Solve for Tomorrow competition. The nationwide program invites young Australians aged 14-24 years to develop innovative solutions for real-world issues they’re passionate about, using STEM skills, creativity, critical thinking and collaborative teamwork to bring these to life.

Solve for Tomorrow 2024 Major Winners – Exam Insights – Jason Zhong, Bradley Cox

Queensland-based 19-year-old, Bradley Cox, has taken out the top prize. His start-up, Exam Insights, is on a mission to provide a question bank in every classroom, built from resources students and teachers already have. Launched in late 2023, the platform centralised past exam papers into highly accessible question banks specifically for Year 12 QLD external exams, making them accessible and useful for students and educators.

After seeing the platform benefit over 22,000 users across Queensland, Brad and his co-founder, Jason Zhong, soon realised they hadn’t just solved their own problem—they’d created a solution with far-reaching potential. They expanded Exam Insights into a tool that could help anyone organise and align their own resources, reducing workloads for educators and simplifying study for students.

As the major prize winner, Brad has won $10,000 to put towards enhancing the platform with new features and services, expanding across Australia and supporting new, strategic partnerships.

Brad said, “What began as a tool to solve our own problem quickly grew into a platform designed to empower classrooms everywhere. Being selected as the winner of Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow competition is an incredible honour and validation of our work and impact on students and educators alike. STEM is an incredible field where curiosity and creativity come together to create solutions that matter. To young Aussies interested in studying STEM, I say start small, learn as you go, and don’t be afraid to fail—it’s all part of the process. Most importantly, focus on how your skills can help others. That’s where the real impact lies, and that’s what makes the journey worthwhile.”

Solve for Tomorrow 2024 Runner 19-24 – STEM Sisterhood – Keziah Furnell

Queensland-based 22-year-old, Keziah Furnell has been awarded the ‘Runner-Up 19-24’ prize with her business, STEM Sisterhood which is aimed at fostering greater participation in STEM for girls and women via a series of workshops exploring different STEM fields, problem solving and collaboration – with a particular focus on accessing girls and women in regional areas. As the prize winner in this category, Keziah has been awarded $5,000 to go towards developing a new range of workshops that will expand into more regional towns, purchase further scientific equipment for the workshops, and enable further engagement with female STEM experts to host the workshops and connect and collaborate with students.

Keziah said, “I was inspired to tackle the issue of underrepresentation of regional and public-school female STEM students when I walked into my first university engineering lecture and discovered only 12 women out of 120 students. I wanted to make girls see from a young age that the ‘play’ they engage in is science that has real scientific pathways. My workshops focus on exploring chemistry through the wonderful world of bath bombs or kitchen chemistry. I am so grateful to be chosen as a recipient of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition and would advise any young Australians interested in studying STEM to go for it – your ideas are valid and important, and anyone has the capacity to change the world.”

Solve for Tomorrow 2024 Runner up 14-18 – Enlight – Shuwei Guo

Sydney-based 16-year-old, Shuwei Guo is the minor winner within the 14-18 year-old category with his personalised education platform concept, Enlight – an innovative, free and AI-powered short-form platform designed to make learning addictive by tailoring education to each individual’s knowledge level, learning type (e.g. visual learning vs. kinaesthetic) by harnessing specific nomenclature and proprietary AI models to gamify traditional education.

The $5,000 prize money will go towards establishing a pilot program within local schools, libraries and community centres, as well as working with educators to refine the platform and establishing a volunteer program of tech-savvy individuals to assist those using the platform.

Shuwei said, “I was inspired to tackle educational inequality after seeing firsthand how limited access to quality learning resources can impact students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Something imperative to my design and iteration processes was making a product that you and your friends would genuinely and consistently use – not ‘just’ another mediocre GPT wrapper. My formative experiences as a student taught me examples of how much personalised, engaging educational content can have a poignant impact in helping students reach their full potential, and I’m grateful to Samsung for the opportunity to showcase how technology can be used to create positive change in our communities.”

In addition to the prize money, each of the three winners have received a Samsung productivity pack that includes a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 5G/Galaxy A55 5G, 32″ Smart Monitor M70D UHD, and Galaxy Buds2.

Brett Turnbull, Director of Corporate Marketing at Samsung Electronics Australia, and judge on the panel for Solve for Tomorrow 2024 said, “At Samsung, we’re dedicated to empowering young Australians to turn their innovative ideas into impactful solutions. This year’s entries showcased the remarkable creativity and purpose-driven mindset of this generation, with participants tackling a diverse range of issues with passion and ingenuity. It’s inspiring to see the potential of STEM in helping develop meaningful change and shape a better future for all.”

Dr Kirsten Banks, Astrophysicist, STEM advocate and Solve for Tomorrow 2024 ambassador said, “I’m continually inspired by the ingenuity and passion of young Australians, and it was exciting to see that firsthand in the submissions. The Solve for Tomorrow 2024 entries demonstrate the power of STEM to address real-world challenges, and the innovative solutions shared make me excited to see what comes next from these bright and curious minds.”

To participate in Solve for Tomorrow, young Australians aged 14-24 years needed to submit a 400-word proposal outlining the issue facing their community and how they would use STEM to solve it, attend a Design Thinking Workshop, and then submit a final video pitch proposal. A panel of judges reviewed the proposals and selected the winners based on a scoring system analysing their STEM application, creativity, feasibility, relevancy and presentation.

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition has been empowering young innovators since launching in Australia in 2021; reaching hundreds of students and fostering their passion for STEM while encouraging them to pursue careers in the industry.