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Solving for Solutions, State by State: Solve for Tomorrow State Winners Vow to Improve Communities in 2018
2/14/2018
A grass-covered roof, a washing machine filter, and an app that tracks wildfires. What do all these things have in common? Here’s a hint: each was proposed by middle and high school students, responding to tough challenges impacting their everyday lives. They’re also just a few of this year’s 51 state winners of Samsung’s annual $2 million Solve for Tomorrow Contest, through which students leverage science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) skills to help address pressing issues through innovative solutions each year.
The selection of Solve for Tomorrow 2017–18 state winners, one from every state and the District of Columbia, is a particularly exciting time for us here at Samsung. It’s a moment we love each year, because we not only get to see the creativity and originality of American students and teachers, but also the care and thoughtfulness they give to their hometowns. This year especially, classrooms across the nation are tackling difficult, real-world issues like drug addiction, natural disasters and more. Through our state winners, we’re reminded of the tremendous collaboration and talent that exists across every corner of the U.S., when each of us can point to our local communities with pride and say, “Aren’t they just incredible?”
The 8th Annual Solve for Tomorrow Awards | 51 State Winners
Now in its eighth year, Solve for Tomorrow challenges 6th-12th grade students across the country to apply STEAM skills in developing creative solutions to unique problems facing local communities. All state winners receive a minimum of $25,000 in Samsung technology. As the schools progress in the contest, they’ll also compete for the next round of prizes.
Here are just a few of the truly impressive state winners announced in December 2017:
- In California, one school proved that Solve for Tomorrow submissions can not only be timely, but also potentially lifesaving. The students are building a mobile app that integrates an external fire extinguishing system to protect residential and business properties from wildfires like those that tore through the state and devastated neighboring communities this past year.
- In the nation’s capital, a group of students are creating an incubator to help cultivate healthier urban development with an ethanol production facility. By processing waste into an energy source, the students hope to reduce water sewage in the Anacostia River and improve air quality around the District of Columbia.
- Students in South Carolina are developing a solution to reduce storm-water pollution in the Myrtle Beach area by designing and implementing green roofs on local hotels and businesses. The roofs, mainly made of several layers of grass and sedum, could not only help alleviate local flooding and ocean pollution where tourism is the state’s number one industry, but also enhance cost-savings for the local government bodies.
- In Connecticut, students are focused on addressing the growing opioid substance abuse in their community and are designing a product that controls the number of pills an individual can take at any given time.
The winning classrooms were selected from thousands of outstanding lesson plans submitted by teachers. For the next phase in the contest, each team will create a video of their project in action to show how they’re working to address the real-world challenge they aim to solve. Schools have about one month — until February 13, 2018 — to continue working on their projects in the hope of advancing to the national finalist and grand prize winner selection rounds.
Since 2010, Solve for Tomorrow has been more than just a contest for Samsung. It is a window into the truly inspiring imagination, talent, and heart of students today from across the country while addressing the technology gap in the classroom. Our Vision for Tomorrow is that real people, everywhere, can have equal and inclusive opportunities to leverage technology for good and innovation, and in effect, enhance daily life — and that’s exactly what Solve for Tomorrow enables from state to state. Most importantly, Solve for Tomorrow provides an inspiring glimpse into our very promising future ahead — both for the tech community and the next generation of American innovators.
