The Government, Innovation Leaders and the UN have lauded Samsung CSR’s focus to nurture young innovators, expanding access to innovation opportunities across India and helping transform ideas into solutions with real-world impact through Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

Addressing Samsung leaders, industry experts, SFT mentors and participants at the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 Grand Finale in New Delhi, Sushil Pal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said innovation must be measured by its ability to improve people’s lives. He commended Samsung for creating a platform that gives young people the confidence to dream and the opportunity to develop products and build startups.

“It’s very heartening to see that Samsung is doing so much for society through their CSR initiatives. I thank Samsung for creating a platform which gives young minds the confidence to dream and the opportunity to build their product and to build their startup,” Pal said.

The fifth edition of Samsung’s flagship CSR programme, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow received more than 34,000 student applications, with 60 finalists reaching the Grand Finale. The programme encourages young people to apply science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to address challenges in their communities, supporting them as they develop and refine solutions with the potential to create meaningful change.

Pal noted that the rise of artificial intelligence had changed the nature of innovation, with technology increasingly shaping how people learn, work, manufacture and access services. He urged young innovators to focus not merely on developing advanced technologies but on addressing pressing human needs.

“The real measure of innovation does not lie in how complex the algorithm is. It lies in what difference it can make to a common person’s life,” he said.

He cited challenges such as helping farmers save water and power, bringing health diagnostics to underserved areas, improving access to quality education in remote villages and enabling scientific sports training. These, he said, were opportunities to contribute to nation-building.

Pal also called on industry to help people adapt to a changing world of work, emphasising that as AI automates some tasks and augments others, preparing people for evolving job roles would be as important as developing new technologies.

Connecting young innovators with global challenges

Stefan Priesner, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India, highlighted SFT’s role in bringing young people’s ideas into the broader effort to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He noted that global progress towards these goals remained too slow and uneven, making youth participation and scalable solutions increasingly important.

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a strong example of the United Nations system and the private sector working together to advance a youth-centred agenda, amplify young voices, and give promising ideas the support they need to grow,” Priesner said.

He emphasised that the private sector could contribute beyond corporate social responsibility by aligning business priorities with environmental sustainability and social inclusion, while helping innovative solutions reach a wider population. Governments, universities, businesses and the UN, he said, all had a role in helping promising ideas scale.

Priesner also encouraged the finalists to remain connected to the communities they hoped to serve, continuously testing and improving their ideas to ensure they could deliver meaningful impact.

Taking innovation beyond metros and creating job creators

Dr Nikhil Agarwal, Managing Director of the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi, highlighted Samsung’s CSR efforts to help bring innovation opportunities to a wider pool of young people.

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow shows the commitment as they have gone to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and different states for building that momentum. SFT got double the number of applications this year and it shows,” Agarwal said.

The programme’s outreach included more than 180 sessions across over 130 cities, helping engage students from diverse geographies and backgrounds. The growth in participation, Agarwal noted, reflected the momentum built by taking the initiative beyond major urban centres.

He also underscored the importance of translating student-led innovation into entrepreneurship, encouraging participants to build ventures that could create opportunities for others.

“You should become job creators, not job doers,” Agarwal told the students, expressing hope that future entrepreneurs would emerge from the programme and build companies that generate employment.

At the 2026 Grand Finale, four winning teams were selected to receive incubation grants totalling ₹2 crore from Samsung, along with mentorship and incubation support at FITT-IIT Delhi. SFT provides promising young innovators with mentorship and incubation support to help them develop their ideas further.

The speakers’ remarks underscored the value of platforms such as Samsung Solve for Tomorrow in bringing together government, industry, international institutions and academia to nurture young talent. By encouraging students to identify real-world problems, develop technology-led solutions and explore entrepreneurship, the programme seeks to help turn promising ideas into innovations that can make a difference at scale.

Samsung India today announced the winners of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026, with this year’s entries spanning 648 cities across 28 states and seven union territories. At the Grand Finale in New Delhi, four teams won incubation grants totaling ₹2 crore from Samsung to take their technology-led solutions forward.

The winning teams — QuantHunt from Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh; morphism from Raipur, Chhattisgarh; InnoBotix from New Delhi and Somatrace from Hyderabad, Telangana — will also receive mentorship and incubation support at FITT, IIT Delhi, to develop their prototypes towards market-ready solutions, with the potential to evolve into startups of the future.

This year’s finalists in India were selected through a six-month journey that included 184 design thinking workshops across 135 cities, intensive bootcamps, prototype development and pitch evaluations. They presented solutions across four themes: AI Living for India, Health and Education, Sport and Tech and Environmental Sustainability.

Now in its fifth edition in India, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is part of a global programme. Since 2022, around 80,000 students have participated, using science, technology, engineering and mathematics to identify challenges in their communities and develop solutions.

Four winning solutions

AI Living for India: QuantHunt – Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh: An AI-based cybersecurity solution designed to identify encryption vulnerabilities and help organisations prepare their digital systems for emerging quantum-computing risks.

Health and Education: morphism – Raipur, Chhattisgarh: An AI system designed to help autistic individuals better understand emotions by analysing subtle facial expressions and other behavioural signals.

Environmental Sustainability: InnoBotix – New Delhi: Sentinel, a solar-powered AI edge device that uses cameras, radar and seismic data to detect wildlife approaching human settlements and provide early warnings.

Sport and Tech: Somatrace – Hyderabad, Telangana: A wearable IoT training tool that measures spinal angles and load during training to help precision-sport athletes and coaches better understand injury risk.

The Top 20 teams received ₹20 lakh in grants, and each member received a Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphone. The Grand Finale also recognised teams through two Community Choice Awards of ₹1 lakh each and a Digital Impact Award of ₹50,000.

This year’s entries featured human-centred solutions using artificial intelligence, wearable IoT and sustainable design. Over 50% of the ideas came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, demonstrating that innovation is not confined to urban centres and that promising solutions to real-world challenges can emerge from every corner of Bharat.

The finalists received mentorship from Samsung, startup founders and experts from FITT, IIT Delhi to refine their hardware and software prototypes.

“India’s next wave of innovation will depend on how well we connect technology to people’s needs and give young people the opportunity to take ideas from the problems they see to solutions they can test and build. Sustaining that journey strengthens the country’s capacity to innovate and is an important part of nation-building. This year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow finalists have brought curiosity, empathy and purpose to challenges in their communities, applying emerging technologies to real-world problems. As Samsung celebrates 30 years in India, we are proud to support their journey. The four winning teams reflect a confident, inventive Bharat, ready to turn ingenuity into impact,” said Mr. JB Park, President and CEO, Samsung South West Asia.

Partnerships to support the next stage

Samsung has strategic partnerships with United Nations in India, FITT, IIT Delhi, Startup India (DPIIT), MeitY Startup Hub, Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog) and Manthan, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

These partnerships connect young innovators with wider support across India’s startup and innovation ecosystem. Through these collaborations, Samsung is helping build a culture of problem-solving and entrepreneurship, empowering young innovators to transform their ideas into market-ready solutions.

The Grand Finale also featured an Investor Meet for all Top 20 teams. The interaction gave the young innovators an opportunity to engage with the startup and investment ecosystem and explore pathways to take their innovations to the next level.

Distinguished guests at the awards ceremony included Sushil Pal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Technology, Government of India, Stefan Priesner, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India and Nikhil Agarwal, Managing Director, FITT, IIT Delhi.

“Innovation advances sustainable development when it is guided by inclusion, empathy and a clear understanding of people’s needs. India’s young innovators are at the heart of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow gives young people the opportunity to have these values frame their solutions for a more inclusive and sustainable future. I congratulate the winners and all participants, and commend Samsung for encouraging young people to engage with the challenges shaping our shared future,” said Stefan Priesner, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India.

“Science and technology create the greatest value when they address challenges in people’s lives. This year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow finalists have brought that approach to a wide range of issues, from healthcare and sustainability to sports, using curiosity and problem-solving to shape their ideas. Platforms that take young people from identifying a challenge to designing and testing a solution strenghten the ecosystem with a culture of innovation across the country,” said Prof. Umesh V. Waghmare, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

“Innovation takes more than a promising idea; it requires a deep understanding of the user and the discipline to test, refine and scale a solution. This year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow finalists have demonstrated both technological ingenuity and a strong sense of purpose. The next step is to help the winning teams move beyond prototypes towards solutions with measurable impact. I congratulate them and look forward to seeing how they use the incubation support to contribute to India’s startup ecosystem,” said Dr. PS Madanagopal, CEO, MeitY Startup Hub.

The Grand Finale jury comprised Mohan Rao Goli, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute India-Bengaluru; KY Roo, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute India-Noida; Demian Hyun, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute India-Delhi; and Yuran Kim, Managing Director, Samsung Design Delhi. The external jury included Himanshu Joshi, Director, AIM, NITI Aayog; Dr. Srinivasan Venkatraman, Assistant Professor, IIT Delhi; Dr. Sapna Poti, Director, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India; and Saurabh Ranjan, Scientist, MeitY.

Through its global CSR vision, “Together for Tomorrow! Enabling People”, Samsung works to expand access to knowledge, skills and resources. In India, its citizenship programmes are guided by “Powering Innovation for India”, supporting young people as they build a better future for their communities.

For generations, Gujarat’s entrepreneurial spirit has powered businesses, industries and community-led progress, making it one of India’s most dynamic centers of innovation and opportunity. Bringing this spirit of problem-solving to the next generation, Samsung India conducted a Design Thinking Workshop under its flagship Solve for Tomorrow (SFT) 2026 programme in Adani Vidya Mandir, Ahmedabad, where over 108 students explored how technology and human-centred design can be used to solve real-world challenges.

The workshop, part of a nationwide 100-city rollout, introduced participants to Samsung’s Design Thinking framework, helping them identify local challenges, understand user needs and transform observations into scalable, technology-driven solutions.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung India’s flagship innovation and education programme for young people aged 14–22 years. The fifth edition encourages participants to develop solutions across four themes — AI for a Better Tomorrow, Health & Education, Environmental Sustainability, and Sport-Tech.

During the Ahmedabad workshop, students developed ideas addressing a range of community challenges. Saanvi Nair, a Class 9 student from Adani Vidya Mandir, applied sustainable engineering principles to rural logistics after identifying a pressing storage deficit.

“Workers and farmers in villages often struggle to store grains, water and food,” she said, inspiring her concept for an eco-friendly, portable solar-powered refrigerator.

Focusing on tech-enabled preventative wellness and consumer safety, fellow student Vaishvi Kashti shared “Many doctors say that we are getting sick from eating food that has harmful substances or ingredients,” leading her to propose an intelligent, real-time scanning device to validate food quality.

Similarly, targeting industrial automation and risk mitigation, Kruti Rana highlighted that “Industries and factories often catch fire easily because of some technical issues in their machinery,” driving her to conceptualise an automated IoT-alert system to pre-empt mechanical failures.

The solutions emerging from the workshop reflected the diversity of innovation opportunities across Gujarat. From sustainability and food safety to industrial automation, students showcased how local challenges can become starting points for impactful innovation.

As Samsung marks 30 years in India, it is significantly expanding the scale of Solve for Tomorrow through Design Thinking Workshops across Bharat, creating opportunities for young innovators from diverse backgrounds to build future-ready problem-solving, innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

Applications for Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 remain open until July 3, 2026. The top four winning teams will receive incubation grants worth INR 2 crore through FITT, IIT Delhi, along with mentorship, training, prototyping support and access to India’s startup ecosystem.

For more information and to apply, visit:www.samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow

The Design Thinking Workshops introduced participants to Samsung’s human-centred innovation framework, equipping them with practical tools to identify everyday challenges, understand user needs and develop technology-led solutions with meaningful social impact.

Held in Army Public School, Ratnuchak Jammu and Government Degree College Baramulla the workshops encouraged students to explore innovation opportunities across digital accessibility, community development, education and smarter civic infrastructure.

The workshops forms part of Samsung’s nationwide effort to expand innovation opportunities beyond metropolitan centres. As part of Solve for Tomorrow 2026, Samsung is conducting Design Thinking Workshops across 100 cities spanning Bharat, enabling young innovators from diverse backgrounds to build future-ready problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills.

Among them was Zamin Anayat Lone from Government Degree College Sopore, Baramulla, who conceptualized a mobile application designed to improve accessibility and emergency response through SOS alerts and live-location sharing features.

“The workshop taught me that innovation begins with understanding people and their experiences. It encouraged me to think about how technology can be used to create meaningful solutions that positively impact communities,” said Zamin.

The workshops also inspired participants to examine how technology could strengthen public services and improve quality of life. Gagandeep Singh from Army Public School, Ratnuchak explored technology-enabled approaches to support more efficient waste management systems, while Garima Yadav, a Class IX student, examined how digital platforms could help students access career awareness and skill-development opportunities.

The ideas emerging from the workshops reflected the growing innovation potential of Jammu & Kashmir’s youth. Participants demonstrated how Design Thinking can transform everyday observations into scalable solutions that address local needs while creating broader social impact.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung India’s flagship innovation competition for young people aged 14–22 years. The programme encourages participants to develop solutions under four themes — AI for a Better Tomorrow, Health & Education, Environmental Sustainability, and Sport-Tech.

As Samsung celebrates 30 years in India, the company continues to invest in nurturing the country’s next generation of innovators by bringing innovation, mentorship and entrepreneurial opportunities closer to students across Bharat.

The programme will culminate with the top four winning teams receiving incubation grants worth INR 2 crore through FITT, IIT Delhi, along with mentorship, training, prototyping support and access to India’s startup ecosystem.

Applications for Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 are open until July 3, 2026.

To apply, visit: samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow

The 16-year-old was among the four national winners of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025, a pan-India innovation competition that empowers the youth to create tech-based solutions to solve real-world problems.

During Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025, Pranet showcased Paraspeak, a real-time, speaker-independent speech enhancement device that converts slurred speech (dysarthria) into clear communication using deep-learning algorithms, helping individuals communicate confidently.

Paraspeak got mentorship from Samsung experts and incubation at FITT, IIT Delhi’s incubation lab in 2025 during the programme.

At the ongoing AI Impact summit, Paraspeak won the YUVAi Global Youth Challenge, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India initiative, securing a prize of ₹15 lakh. The competition attracted more than 2,500 entries from 38 countries, highlighting strong global participation from young innovators developing solutions aligned with social and developmental priorities.

This achievement reflects the growing impact of emerging talent supported through Samsung’s innovation ecosystem. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow equips participants with mentorship, structured learning, and industry exposure, enabling them to transform ideas into practical, scalable solutions with real-world relevance.

During Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025, the top four winning teams — Percevia (Bengaluru), NextPlay.AI (Aurangabad), Prithvi Rakshak (Palamu) and Paraspeak (Gurugram)— received INR 1 crore in incubation grants and will continue to develop their prototypes into scalable real-world solutions with mentorship support at IIT Delhi’s FITT Labs.

The India AI Impact Summit held at New Delhi convened global policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and innovators to showcase transformative AI solutions tackling global challenges.

They are not finished products yet, neither their prototypes nor their journeys. As part of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, challenges have not ceased for the Top 40 innovators. These young changemakers are still building, modifying, expanding, testing, and sometimes discarding ideas altogether. What they are discovering, however, may be as relevant and important as the innovations themselves: that design thinking is not just a toolkit but a mindset that demands empathy, patience, and an openness to failure.

Over the past week, participants were on a frenetic pursuit for perfection in ideas guided by mentors, workshops, and their first exposure to the FITT labs.

In an AI-driven world where speed and automation dominate the public discourse, these students are being reminded that the true test of technology is whether it can connect to the human heart and the human behaviour.

Sitting With the Problem

In this context, it will be pertinent to speak about the story of the Pink Brigadiers. A team comprising of Vivek Sawant from Maharashtra and Shriya Aditya Dalai from Odisha, both NIT Rourkela engineering students. What are they doing this year? They are working on what they call Bharat’s first AI-driven breast care app. At first glance, it’s a technical marvel: convolutional neural networks with edge deployment that can detect anomalies and connect women with doctors. But the breakthrough, they admit, has not been in the code.

“Our product requires immense sensitivity. The design thinking training encouraged us to sit with the problem longer, understand users more deeply, and keep adapting to their needs. UX/UI and trust are as important as the AI itself,” they explain.

For them, design thinking is a reminder that how an app makes someone feel may be as critical as what it does. Building technology for a deeply private health concern means that tone, colour palettes, language, and interface all become questions of empathy. This insight resonates with recent Stanford research showing that building fair and trustworthy AI systems requires attention not only to algorithms but also to transparency, edge-case behaviour, and user comfort.

Humanising AI

Elsewhere, inside the FITT lab there is a duo trying to grasp the lesson on AI from their product – How can AI provide intelligence, and how can design thinking make it intelligible.

Take Mindsnap, a personalised education platform created by Devayanee Gupta and Sayan Adhikary from Kolkata, both engineering students. Powered by large language models (LLMs), the platform adapts to neurodiverse learners, whether they are dyslexic, on the spectrum, or simply learn better through games.

“We realised no algorithm works if the interface doesn’t speak to the learner,” they explain. “Design thinking made us focus on UX/UI, accessibility, and the lived experience of students.”

Aditya Verma from Chennai is making a similar discovery with Mama Saheli AI, a holistic pregnancy app inspired by his mother’s experience in remote areas where medical access was limited.

“My app had to feel like a friend, not just a tool. Design thinking pushed me to see it through the user’s emotions, behaviour, and even cultural context. That’s what makes it scalable and trustworthy,” he says.

His app synthesises information, filters out misinformation, and integrates with wearables to provide hyperpersonalized insights, but its soul lies in the idea of companionship. His approach aligns with the PADTHAI-MM framework, which shows that transparent, human-centred design, combining explainability with user context, produces far more trust than opaque “black box” AI.

Design as a Strategy for Scale

The Prithvirakshak team from Ludhiana: 12th graders Abhishek Dhanda, Prabhkirat Singh, and Rachita Chandok are fighting India’s colossal waste management problem with what they call the nation’s first modular automated vermicomposting centre.

The idea began as a classroom experiment, it has now become a three-year journey of prototyping, testing, and learning how to collapse a 90-day composting process into just 30 days.

“Traditionally, vermicomposting has been labour-intensive and hard to scale,” they explain. “Design thinking helped us imagine modular models that can work in a garden, a housing society, or even at city level.”

For them, scalability is not about size but about adaptability, the ability to shape the same core idea to serve farmers, urban families, or municipalities.

The Journey, Not the Destination

None of these teams know if they will eventually win the Solve for Tomorrow challenge. Their prototypes remain imperfect; their pitch decks are still being rewritten. Yet what binds them together is a recognition that design thinking has already amended their approach.

While global conversations around AI often spiral into questions of ethics, bias, and speed, these young problem-solvers are grounding their innovations in something older and steadier: human-centred design.

AI, they are discovering, may be the brain. But design thinking, in all its humility and discipline, is the heart. And as these students continue to fight for their place in the Top 20, that may turn out to be the most important lesson of all.

Over the last weekend, 10 young Samsung employees from various parts of the organisation had a unique job assigned to them. They were the jury for the Solve for Tomorrow education and innovation competition in India, tasked with judging the teams that have reached the top 50 in the competition.

Between September 15 and 17, the jury and 118 bright young minds from across 18 states and 1 union territory of India were gathered at the prestigious IIT Delhi campus for a three-day bootcamp where the Solve for Tomorrow participants were groomed on designing thinking and how to pitch their ideas to a jury.

The chosen 50 teams, with youth aged between 16-22, were here for the next phase of ‘Solve for Tomorrow’, where they further developed their ideas to solve the world’s most pressing issues. With the support and expertise of Samsung’s knowledge partner FITT, IIT Delhi, the 50 teams were mentored by trainers from IIT Delhi to help them enhance their ideas.

The three-day weren’t all work with no play. The ‘Solvers’ met each other only to find out how brilliant each of their ideas were. They embraced different cultures, languages and food as it was a house full of diversity with teams from across India.

At the end of the bootcamp, the young jury finally got down to tallying the scores for each team and picked the Top 10 teams that came up with the best ideas in the areas of environmental conservation, making healthcare more accessible to the less privileged, menstrual hygiene for rural women and stress management, among others.

Let us show you a few glimpses of the thought-provoking three-days, and introduce you to our exciting, and excited jury members

2020 marks the first year that the start-ups accepted to participate in C-Lab outside will be featured at CES. Leveraging the success of the C-Lab Inside initiative, C-Lab Outside has been expanding Samsung’s support for new ventures to start ups and innovations outside of the Samsung network since 2018. The program provides financial support, business collaboration and chances to participate in global exhibitions for new entities with the goal of energizing the start-up ecosystem and creating more IT and technology-driven jobs.

The number of homes populated by just one person is expected to skyrocket in the near-future, with more than 120 million new single-person households expected to be added globally between 2016 and 2030. This demographic will be created by young singles prioritizing their careers over relationships, as well as by the expanding widowed and divorced elderly group, which is especially significant in developed countries. From these shifting demographics emerge pressing concerns regarding loneliness, isolation and a host of other social problems. Thus, team Circulus has introduced its household pet robot ‘pibo’ to try and help address this issue. Asked about the meaning of their team name, team Circulus related that “Circulus is Latin for circle. The word also contains “us”, which stands for “let us help each other.”

Pibo balances people’s emotions via communication. It is versatile, offering basic conversation, guidance services including news and weather information, and a voice search function. The humanoid robot analyzes the user’s facial expressions and dialogue in order to best interact with them, delivering conversation, well-known sayings, turning on music or starting to dance depending on how the user is perceived to be feeling. Unlike a smart speaker, pibo doesn’t wait for you to speak up first, and will often initiate conversation when you walk past. Users can also share memories with pibo, using it to share memories, photos and voice diary entries. What’s more, users can update their pet robot with new features by downloading them from the robot application store. pibo can be customized specifically for you as you make use of its advanced capabilities and tailor its functions to your preferences.

“We’d like to introduce pibo to the world at CES 2020,” said a member of Circulus, “As the US, Europe and Japan are all experiencing an uptick in one-person households, pibo can be a great friend to those who are alone.”

Generally, if you want a personalized exercise plan, you must first undergo a medical examination. However, going to the hospital to put on a mask and run on a treadmill represents a daunting task to many. FITT is a PHR (Personal Health Record) healthcare data platform that was created to positively influence people’s health via easy-to-use exercise evaluation software. When asked about the meaning of their team name, team FITT explained that “Our team name is an abbreviation of the four major elements of exercise planning: Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type.”

FITT starts out by measuring your maximum oxygen intake while you complete a 2.4km running exercise through the FITT app. This test allows the program to produce four one-page reports containing professional-level data regarding the user’s body and physical condition, as well as a fitness program that is tailor-made for them. Within the program FITT issues a customized cardiorespiratory exercise plan, recommending how far users should run, how fast and for how long, as well as a customized posture and muscle strength exercise plan. Once users complete the fitness test, FITT can even predict diseases that the user might be susceptible to, including high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart attacks and cardiovascular disease, among others. If the system identifies that a user is at risk for one or more of these conditions, it will recommend further preventative activities for them. FITT is currently being provided as a web service in select fitness centers, but will be made widely available once the FITT app launches in March of 2020.

“Exercise works best when it is customized for the individual and done in a controlled environment,” a member of team FITT commented, “I hope our ‘exercise evaluations’ help users find out which kind of exercise routine is the best fit for them.”

These days, people use a lot of different devices, with a broad range of different features. In light of this, Suk-jung Kim of Vtouch says he feels that “new ways to interact with devices should be emerging as well.” The conventional input methods these days include either using a touchscreen or interacting with a cursor, but these methods can be prohibitive for users with limited mobility or children who cannot always reach up high enough to interact with devices. Asked about the meaning of their team name, team Vtouch reported that “It means ‘virtual touch’, which communicates the fact that our solution can bring about a ‘touch’ input without the need for physical contact.”

Vtouch’s concept focuses on the fact that whenever you point at an object, your eyes, finger and the object you are pointing at are aligned. The technology enables a non-contact touch input by using computer vision and deep-learning technologies to analyze the movement of the eyes and finger through a camera. Vtouch allows for more sanitary use of devices by removing the physical touch element, and allows for precise, next-generation gesture controls with an error margin of just 5 degrees. As the intuitive technology only requires a camera and processor to work, it can be implemented in a wide range of sectors including automotive, IoT (smart home) and digital signage.

“At first, Vtouch was too expensive to mass produce,” a member of the Vtouch team relates, “However, with the help of various researchers and developers we have been able to bring the price down to where it is now cheaper than most touch panels. We are hoping to implement our solution in multiple environments soon in order to provide a convenient, inclusive experience for users.”

We are living in the era of video-first, and video calls are great for allowing you to talk to loved ones face-to-face without actually being in the same place. However, video calls aren’t appropriate for all situations. If someone video calls you in a quiet place like the library or the subway, or if you want to talk about something private, video calls are less than ideal. Thus, the Smoothy team set out to create a video call app that would address these inconveniences. By incorporating text elements into the video calling interface, while also allowing people to incorporate large groups into their video calls, Smoothy has attracted more than 850,000 users already. Commenting on their team name, the members of team Smoothy related that “Our name implies the smooth combination of video, voice and text during video calls. It also means togetherness while expressing yourself, wherever you are.”

When you answer a call on Smoothy, the call is initially launched in silent mode, meaning that you can answer a video call, anytime, anywhere. Smoothy allows for large group video calls as well, enabling up to eight people to participate in a video call at once. From there, you can either talk normally, or chat with real-time texting, with your texts appearing in the call window as you type. Although we are living in the world of video, most people still communicate through text messages, and the world of texting is brought to life when you can see your friend’s reaction in real-time right before your eyes. Smoothy even allows you to quickly and conveniently capture video clips and send them to friends, enabling whole conversations to unfold through snippets of video. Unlike other video call apps, Smoothy enables you to decorate yourself with features such as AR Emoji, allowing for more fun video chats. When you are in a video chat with more than two people, Smoothy even allows you to visualize your reactions with next-level features such as a lightning effect and a function that allows you to cause other participants’ displays to shake.

“Firstly, we would like to provide a video call app that is fun to use,” reported a member of team Smoothy, “And secondly, we want to deliver an app that enables a wide range of effects and interaction styles.”