Team RSP from XLRI Jamshedpur emerged as the national winner

Samsung, India’s largest consumer electronics brand, has announced the winners of the ninth edition of Samsung E.D.G.E. (Empowering Dreams Gaining Excellence), its annual flagship campus programme that offers thousands of brilliant young minds opportunities to showcase their business acumen, strategic thinking, and leadership skills.

This year, over 15,000 students from 40 premier campuses, including top-tier B-schools, engineering colleges, and design schools participated. Some of the country’s brightest students displayed their skills and engaged in insightful exchanges, embodying the spirit of innovation and collaboration. The finale event held in Gurugram, was attended by JB Park, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia and other senior leaders of Samsung India.

“At Samsung, innovation is the cornerstone of everything we do. Through the years, Samsung E.D.G.E. has continually empowered students, offering a platform to showcase their creative solutions for enhanced consumer experience. This year, we were thrilled by the overwhelming response and participation from even more students and campuses, which has been truly inspiring. It was exciting to witness the spirit of innovation and problem-solving thriving in these young minds,” said JB Park, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia.

Team RSP from XLRI Jamshedpur emerged as the national winner. Its innovative strategy to boost consumer engagement impressed the jury. RSP’s idea included the use of brand mascots, geo-targeting, Gen MZ hotspot tagging, and mall activations — all tailored to build deeper consumer connections and drive engagement through innovative, localized, and personalized experiences. The team — Pranjali Bhatia, Siddhartha Dwivedi, Rohan Bhardwaj secured a cash prize of INR 450,000, Samsung’s flagship smartphones and pre-placement offers from Samsung.

Team Chevy67 from XLRI, Jamshedpur claimed the first runners-up position with a strategy for the smart home market. The proposed idea focused on driving adoption and creating an interconnected, future-ready ecosystem that streamlines the user experience globally by guiding them in their purchase journey. The team — Apurvaa Mittal, Chayan Banerjee, Shubham Tripathy were awarded a cash prize of INR 300,000.

Team Chevy67 from XLRI, Jamshedpur claimed the first runners-up position with a strategy for the smart home market

Team Pheonix from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Calcutta finished as the second runner-up.  Their forward-thinking ideas involving ‘Spin to Win’ Smart QR Codes, Infinite Experiences with Sustainable Design, aimed to elevate the brand engagement through experiential retail and sustainability. The core idea was about leveraging innovative marketing and product strategies to create deeper connections with consumers, while ensuring a future-ready experience for a global audience.  The team—Varun Goyal, Umang Jain, and Saksham Jain—was awarded INR 150,000.

Team Pheonix from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Calcutta finished as the second runner-up

This year, while 5713 teams registered for Samsung E.D.G.E., 1432 were selected for the Campus Round, where they constructed executive case summaries through research and ideation. Subsequently, 59 teams advanced to the regional round, submitting, and presenting detailed solutions. Only the top 8 teams from this group progressed to the National round, receiving one-on-one mentorship from Samsung leaders before presenting their final ideas.

Since its inception in 2016, Samsung E.D.G.E. has grown into a first-of-its-kind campus programme in India that allows the country’s finest talent to come forward and exchange meaningful insights to get a head-start in their careers.

Samsung, India’s most trusted and desirable brand, has commenced the sixth edition of its national campus program, Samsung E.D.G.E. After a successful virtual edition last year, Samsung E.D.G.E. is inviting the most brilliant minds from leading academic institutions across the country to work on real-life problem statements, interact with Samsung’s top leaders and provide unique solutions to the problem at hand.

The program will be conducted in three rounds where students from 20 campuses including top engineering and design schools will participate. The teams should comprise of at least three students from within the campus across years and specializations. Each team will present their unique solution showcasing cutting edge innovation and leadership skills. The top three teams will get a cash prize along with a potential opportunity to work with Samsung.

In the first round, which is the campus round, each participating team is expected to work on research, analysis, brainstorming and formulating the most innovative approach and submit an executive summary. Post evaluation, the shortlisted teams from the first round will work on a case study and submit their respective solutions for assessment. The participants shortlisted from the regional round (second round) will compete in the national round. Top 8 teams shortlisted for the final round will be coached by Samsung leaders to enhance their solutions.

“At Samsung, we believe in technology and innovation-driven solutions. We strive to encourage the spirit of innovation among youth and offer a platform that provides them mentorship and an opportunity to innovate. We are launching the sixth edition of Samsung E.D.G.E. and are excited to see young Indian talent raising the bar every year with their leadership and problem-solving skills,” said Mr. Ken Kang, President & CEO, Samsung SWA.

In 2020, 1,763 teams across India participated in the program to present innovations around the theme ‘The Era of UNTACT – New Days, New Ways’. Team Secret Society of IIT Madras won for presenting a customer-centric, innovative solution to reach out to potential consumers in a contact-less way in the new normal. Team Pravega from FMS Delhi came second for presenting a messaging app based chat-bot experience for consumers and store on wheels solution while the second runners up, team Mafia from XLRI Jamshedpur, showcased an innovative virtual store walk solution.

Launched in December 2016, Samsung E.D.G.E. is a first-of-its-kind campus program that provides an opportunity to the country’s best talent to come forward and exchange meaningful insights to get a head-start in their careers.

Samsung India concluded the fourth edition of Samsung’s pan India campus program, Samsung E.D.G.E. that witnessed participation from 3,873 students comprising of 1,291 teams and representing 20 leading institutes of the country. The theme for this year was ‘Driving for Change’ for local communities wherein the participants were encouraged to address micro issues of local importance and present innovative solutions.

The winning team ‘Skyforce’ from IIM Lucknow comprising Himshikha, Abhilash I and Nithiya CH, presented a solution for ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers to become more efficient. ASHA workers are community health workers spread across India. Team ‘Skyforce’ were awarded a cash prize of INR 4 lakh and a Galaxy Note 10 Plus for each member. The team proposed a technology-based solution to address issues that ASHA workers face such as tracking, information asymmetry, and manual data registration etc. The finale of the campus program was held in Gurugram.

Eight teams qualified for the finale after the regional rounds. The team from XLRI Jamshedpur ‘Muppets’ got the second prize by proposing a solution to overcome linguistic and cultural disparity in imparting education to tribal children using Samsung technologies. They were followed by ‘Team SMS’ from MDI Gurgaon who suggested a ‘Smart Saathi App’ to address the menace of drug addiction. XLRI Jamshedpur and MDI Gurgaon received a cash prize of INR 2 lakh and INR 1 lakh, respectively as prize money. All participants at the grand finale received Galaxy Buds.

“At Samsung, we strongly believe in innovations that enable change. Through the Samsung E.D.G.E. campus program, our vision is to cultivate bright young minds and give them a platform to showcase their creative solutions to real life issues. The ideas presented today showcase the quest amongst students to create effective solutions and contribute to the transformation of the society,” said Sameer Wadhawan, Head, Human Resources, Samsung India.

Launched in December 2016, Samsung E.D.G.E. is a first-of-its-kind campus program that provides an opportunity to the country’s brightest students to exhibit their talents, exchange meaningful insights and get a head-start in their careers. The program, stretched over three months, saw over 50% increase in participation by students from B. Tech, Master of Business Administration and Master of Design.

The program consists of three rounds. The first round is about ideation, where the team members come together and put up an executive case summary. Post evaluation, one team per campus is shortlisted. The top teams that are shortlisted in campus round work on a case study, submit and present their detailed solutions at the regional round. At the end of the regional round, top 8 teams are selected and mentored by Samsung leaders on their respective solutions. The finale 8 teams battle it out in the National Round to arrive at the three winning teams.

The team from business school MICA Ahmedabad called ‘Jenga’, comprising Kanchan Supekar, Sruthy Whence and Jyot Singh Gill emerged as the winner at the national finals in Gurgaon on December 03, 2018. The team ‘Overmorrow’ from National Institute of Design, Bangalore came second followed by ‘Deadweight Loss’ from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

The third consecutive year of Samsung E.D.G.E. called out the brightest minds of the country to participate in its campus program. This year 2,553 students (851 teams) from 18 leading campuses from all across the country participated in the program. The competition, spread over three months, invited participation of students from diverse domains such as B. Tech, Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Design.

“At Samsung, we nurture the brilliance of young minds, bringing out the spirit of innovation in them. As a platform, Samsung E.D.G.E. endeavours to bring to life creative ideas of students who want to effect change. The level of enthusiasm to ideate and participate across campuses in India this year has been heartwarming,” said Mr. Sameer Wadhawan, Head, Human Resources, Samsung India.

Eight teams which won at the regional rounds qualified for the keenly contested national finale of the Samsung E.D.G.E. program this year. The winning team received a prize of INR 4 lakh and each member got a Galaxy Note9 smartphone while the team that came second got a prize of INR 2 lakh. The third team received a prize of INR 1 lakh. Members of all 8 teams that reached the national finals received Samsung vouchers worth INR 10,000.

Samsung E.D.G.E. brings together bright minds from campuses across India to ideate and showcase their talent on a national platform. The platform gives students an opportunity to interact with the leadership team at Samsung, work on real-world business problems and come up with unique solutions. This year, the top 8 teams worked on the premise ‘Samsung – a brand of choice for millennials’.

The second season of Samsung E.D.G.E. was won by a team from IIT Madras ‘Athena’Z’ that had showcased their idea around making Samsung’s intelligent interface Bixby better integrated with consumers’ day to day usage of smartphones.

Launched in December 2016, Samsung E.D.G.E. is a first-of-its-kind campus program that provides an opportunity to the country’s brightest students to exhibit their talents, exchange meaningful insights and get a head-start in their careers.

The Samsung E.D.G.E. program consists of four rounds. In the first round, team members came together and put up an executive case summary. Top team members were then invited to participate in the campus round and presented their ideas through group presentations. After evaluation, top teams in each campus were shortlisted for the Regional Round in which all the teams worked on the case study and presented their unique solutions. At the end of the regional rounds, top 8 teams were selected and mentored by Samsung leaders on their respective solutions. The finale 8 teams battled it out in the National Round to arrive at the three winning teams.

Earlier this year, Samsung India had hired 72 graduates as management trainees from top B-schools such as the IIMs, XLRI, SP Jain, ISB, JBIMS as well as chartered accountants, National Institute of Design graduates and also students of supply chain management from NITIE.

In the current hiring season, Samsung India plans to hire close to 1,000 graduates from top Indian engineering colleges to strengthen its R&D operations in the country, especially in cutting edge domains of artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, natural language processing, camera technology and 5G networks. Over 300 of these engineers will be hired from the IITs.

Pranjal Mehta, student of IIT-Madras, got the opportunity to intern with Samsung India, after winning the inaugural Samsung E.D.G.E. competition. He shares his experience at Samsung with India Newsroom. 

“Engineering students trump MBA candidates to win Samsung E.D.G.E.,” read the news headline. I couldn’t believe it! What looked like an impossible-to-win-but-let-me-try-it competition was now on my trophy shelf.

I had never imagined winning the Samsung E.D.G.E. competition, considering our undergraduate engineering team was up against students from top B-Schools. But the win turned us into overnight rockstars in our college. For a brief moment, we became the talking point in B-School campuses too.

Pranjal and his teammates from IIT Madras receiving the first prize from Mr. HC Hong, President and CEO of Samsung Southwest Asia at the inaugural Samsung E.D.G.E. competition

As the euphoria wore off, we realized that we may not be eligible to intern with Samsung India, a privilege promised to winners of Samsung E.D.G.E. We were undergraduates, while internship opportunities existed for B-School graduates.

But cool companies do things differently is what I realized when I received an internship offer for summer of 2017. I jumped at this opportunity and joined the Samsung Pay team since our winning business case was on “Leadership Strategy for Samsung Pay”.

My teammates chose to take the technical route and joined Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore, Samsung’s biggest R&D facility outside Korea.

I arrived for my internship in Delhi on a hot May evening. This was only my second time in Delhi, the first being for Samsung E.D.G.E. competition. I was excited. I’m a Rajasthani who grew up in Bangalore and has been studying in Chennai for the last two years. I like exploring new cities. Add to that the opportunity to work at one of the global tech giants. What more could you ask for at 20!

Pranjal (L) with his mentors – Manasvi Vedhera (centre) and Sanjay Razdan (R) of Samsung India

After finishing the paper work, I was introduced to the Samsung Pay team. My guide Manasvi Vedhera turned out to be a brilliant mentor. By the second half on the first day, I felt like I’m at home.

I spent the first week understanding everything about Samsung Pay. As with a lot of interns, I was full of energy and ideas, but I soon realized that not all ideas are good. I would throw ideas at the Samsung Pay team and they’d explain why it had not been done or what the roadblocks are and how we could go about it. This learning was a remarkable experience and helped me develop my business acumen.

Engrossed in work… Life at Samsung India is a healthy mix of hard work and fun, according to Pranjal

I spent a lot of time identifying new use cases. I also worked with colleagues across the globe to do feasibility checks for these use cases, both technical and business.

The Samsung Pay team did a fabulous job in accommodating a rookie like me. They were extremely friendly and cooperative. Few of the best memories I have with the team are from the elaborate lunches hosted by our director Sanjay Razdan. Age never felt like a barrier between me and my colleagues. I was engaged in the team’s ongoing projects to gain corporate experience and make me business ready.

I can now confidently say that I have a sound understanding of the payment scenario in India and across the globe. Through the internship, I had the opportunity to visit offices of popular Indian startups and MNCs, organize meetings, give presentations and attend mobile phone launches. All this has helped me become a much better professional.

“Then there are several cool lounges to unwind…”

Samsung also has some amazing facilities for its employees – a multi-cuisine cafeteria that serves Indian, continental as well as Korean food. Then there are several cool lounges to unwind.

One of the things that I really loved was the amazing offers available for employees. Unfortunately, I could not avail these offers; I would have loved to buy a Galaxy S8. Just think about the headline doing the rounds in my campus. “Pranjal goes for a Samsung internship with a different branded phone and returns with Galaxy S8”. Maybe next time when I’m here I can have this privilege.

There are other perks too. Samsung invests well in its employees (and interns). I come from a prestigious yet government-run institution. Hostel food is good enough to keep us just above underweight. From those standards, the lunch in office canteen is delicious.

Pranjal (centre) at the Masterchef competition organized by Samsung India

One of the best memories I will take back from here is the Samsung Masterchef competition I took part in with my teammates. We cooked spring rolls which disappeared into the bellies of the audience, 3.142 microseconds after the judge praised its stuffing.

Even beyond these materialistic perks, the satisfaction of working on and for something touching millions of lives across the globe is beautiful.

I have loads of stories to tell my friends when I get back. One particular story that I would like to share is when I walked into a Samsung store with a date and told them I work at HO – the royal treatment that came next worked wonders! Hope Samsung has stories to tell about my work here to future interns as well!

Mr. HC Hong, President and CEO of Samsung Southwest Asia, gave away the first prize to the winning team from IIT Madras

‘Monimakers’, the team comprising second-year students from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, overwhelmed their much-fancied counterparts from top business schools, to walk away with the first prize at the inaugural Samsung E.D.G.E campus program.

The winning team from IIT Madras presented a solution on leadership strategy in digital payments, using a disruptive technology backbone built around Samsung’s mobile payment service – Samsung Pay – that has been launched globally.

The team from IIT Madras presented a solution on leadership strategy in digital payments

The team from IIT Madras received a thunderous applause from an audience of around 100 people, comprising the top brass of Samsung South West Asia.

Members of the winning team said they had finalized their presentation just a day ago and had not expected to win the coveted competition.

“We knew we were up against some very good teams,” the IIT Madras team said.

The winning team members received a prize of INR 3 lakh and a Gear S3 smartwatch each from Mr. HC Hong, President & CEO, Samsung SWA.

“The talk from the CEO was amazing and it said a lot about the culture of the company,” said a member of the winning team.

XLRI Jamshedpur won the second prize

The second and third prizes were won by the teams from XLRI Jamshedpur and Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi. The team from XLRI Jamshedpur got a cash prize of INR 1.5 lakh, whole the team from FMS received a prize of INR 75,000.

The team from FMS, Delhi came second runner-up

Students from the top two teams were also designated Samsung Campus Ambassadors and second year MBA students received a pre-placement interview from Samsung.

“The experience was great and much better than a few of the other national competitions that have happened. The stay was pleasant and the arrangements made were top class,” said a participant.

Students engrossed in discussion, mid-way through their presentation

All 12 teams that reached the grand finale of the first season Samsung’s campus program – Samsung E.D.G.E. – also received vouchers worth INR 10,000.

“The response from students has been overwhelming and we are extremely happy with the success of the first season of the Samsung E.D.G.E. program. At Samsung, we always strive to encourage young minds and nurture the spirit of innovation among them,” said Mr. Udaiy Khanna, Vice President – Human Resources, Samsung India.

Samsung E.D.G.E. program has been designed to engage with leading B-school and engineering talent across India, with students getting an opportunity to interact with the leadership team at Samsung, work on real-world business problems and come up with their unique solutions.

Launched in December 2016, Samsung E.D.G.E. is a first-of-its-kind campus program, to provide a platform that gives the country’s brightest students at leading B-schools and engineering colleges an opportunity to get a head-start in their careers.

Samsung E.D.G.E. comprised of three rounds. Three teams per campus were shortlisted for the Zonal Round in which all the teams closely worked on a case study and presented their unique solutions. A total of 45 teams from across 15 campuses were shortlisted for the Zonal Round in which the participants worked on different case studies and presented their unique solutions.

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