Samsung PRISM was started in 2020 and in the last two years, over 4,500 engineering students and 1,000 professors have worked with SRI-B engineers to deliver live projects successfully. In this time, student and professor teams have filed multiple patents along with SRI-B engineers and have published several research papers.

As part of the program, Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore (SRI-B) collaborates with students and faculty at engineering colleges, giving them research as well as development projects (worklets) to be executed over four to six months.

Teams of students and professors work on live R&D projects in cutting edge technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence (including vision tech), Machine Learning, Internet of Things & Connected Devices and 5G networks. This has helped build capabilities among students that meet industry needs.

Students from engineering colleges that are in top positions of Government of India’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings from across the country have participated in the program so far.

“Samsung PRISM program is our contribution to developing an innovation mindset among the youth of India, building on the strengths of our academia and engineering student community. Working with Samsung, young students have got hands-on exposure to live projects of an R&D centre and professors have got more practical industry experience. This is making students industry-ready and is furthering our vision of Powering Digital India,” said Srimanu Prasad, Head of Tech Strategy, Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore.

“Over the last two years, we have already seen strong results, with student teams filing patents and publishing technical papers in cutting edge domains,” Prasad added.

With the PRISM program, Samsung seeks to build a skilled workforce of future innovators in India. All students are given certificates by SRI-B on project completion, and so far over 300 teams have been recognized for their exceptional work and have been rewarded as well.

Each project is taken up by a team of three students and one professor, with a mentor from SRI-B who guides, trains them and conducts regular reviews. Each engineering college has multiple teams and students are selected based on a test conducted by SRI-B.

Students who have participated in the PRISM program said the collaborative environment has been very helpful. Through the program, they have been able to work on challenging problem statements and gain valuable insights on the workings of large companies in the industry. Professors said the program has helped them upgrade their technical skills and gain practical industry experience.

SRI-B, which is Samsung’s largest R&D facility outside of Korea, is focused on Communication Protocols, Multimedia (including Camera Solutions), AD Tech, Data Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and IoT. The centre has built end-to-end expertise in COEs through product management and UX Design thinking. The R&D centre’s main objective is to develop global product differentiation and solutions for the Indian market by identifying unique insights and delivering value to consumers. So far, the R&D centre has filed over 3,500 patents in India and over 7,500 patents globally.

The program, which will be run by Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B), Samsung’s largest R&D facility outside of Korea, aimed to involve engineering colleges that are in the top positions of the Government of India’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. SRI-B has so far signed MoUs with 10 engineering colleges. It will add more colleges over the next few months.

Once the program rolls out, SRI-B will collaborate with students and faculty at these engineering colleges, giving them research as well as development projects to be executed over four to six months. Students will get to work on projects in cutting edge technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence (including vision tech), Machine Learning, Internet of Things & Connected Devices and 5G networks, to solve real world problems.

Each project will be taken up by a team of three students and one professor, with a mentor from SRI-B who will guide and train them, and conduct regular reviews. Each engineering college can have multiple teams, and students will be selected on the basis of a test conducted by SRI-B.

Students will also be encouraged to publish papers and file patents jointly with SRI-B.

Dipesh Shah, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore, said: “Samsung PRISM program is a testimony to our mission of transforming people’s lives with meaningful innovations. This program will draw from the strength of our academia and engineering students’ community, which undoubtedly is the best in the world. Giving them an opportunity to work with Samsung, and making them industry-ready will be a step in the right direction towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

“As we move forward, we want to blend the program with the academic calendars of engineering colleges across the country, and also encourage students and faculty to publish quality papers and file patents,” Mr Shah added.

SRI-B had started a pilot program for Samsung PRISM last year, in which 150 teams worked on unique R&D projects. The teams worked on ‘Make for India’ projects such as handwriting recognition for Indian languages and AI-based Indian language translation. Some teams worked on research projects such as intelligent navigation via in-home object recognition and improving video quality in low light conditions.

During the lockdown period, the program has been conducted online. Teams worked on their projects from home, and have been trained by mentors over Video Calls and Webinars. Students can log on to https://www.samsungprism.com to update their projects details and for periodic reviews.

All team members on project completion will be given certificates by SRI-B. So far, 46 teams have been recognized for their exceptional work and have been rewarded too. SRI-B has signed MoUs with Vellore Institute of Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, M.S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, RV College of Engineering, BMS College of Engineering, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, and others.

SRI-B focuses on technologies around Communication Protocols, Multimedia (including Camera Solutions), Intelligence, Payment, Web Services, Memory, Network and IoT. The R&D centre’s key focus is to create global product differentiation and solutions for the Indian market by identifying unique insights and deliver value to consumers. SRI-B has expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and networks including 5G. It has also filed over 2,900 patents in India so far.

Over the years, SRI-B has engaged with multiple universities and educational institutes such as Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IISc), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) IIT- Kharagpur and IIT-Kanpur for research collaborations on areas such as artificial intelligence and its applications to multimedia and vision tech, IoT, sensors and networks.