{"id":87238,"date":"2026-08-21T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/?p=87238"},"modified":"2026-08-21T09:09:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:09:05","slug":"samsung-research-america-expands-academic-collaboration-through-the-2026-start-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/samsung-research-america-expands-academic-collaboration-2026-start-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung Research America Expands Academic Collaboration Through the 2026 START Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Samsung Research America<\/a> (SRA) has selected eight research projects for its 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Strategic Alliance for Research and Technology (START) Program<\/a> cohort, expanding collaboration with leading universities across North America to advance research in emerging technology areas.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The START Program<\/a> reflects <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Samsung Electronics\u2019<\/a> long-standing commitment to identify the best opportunities in the US and Canadian innovation ecosystems by blending <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Samsung&#8217;s R&amp;D capabilitie<\/a>s with the research expertise of leading academic institutions. Through the program, Samsung researchers collaborate with university research teams to explore new ideas, advance foundational research, and identify ground-breaking technologies with the potential to shape future products and user experiences. This program builds on a successful foundation from the previous year, when the cohort executed 12 research projects with nine universities across key domains, including AI, Robotics, and <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/research-area\/digital-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Digital Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"embedded recommended recommended-post\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"embedded-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card-badge\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Recommended News<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"recommended-card\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/samsung-launches-health-assistant-beta-first-fully-integrated-ai-powered-assistant\/?r=true&#038;referrer=usnewsroom\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"recommended-news\" aria-label=\"Samsung Launches Health Assistant Beta \u2014 First Fully Integrated AI-Powered Personal Health Assistant \u2013 Read more\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21090243\/Recommended-Articles-268x178-1.jpg\" alt=\"Read more: Samsung Launches Health Assistant Beta \u2014 First Fully Integrated AI-Powered Personal Health Assistant\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"details\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"details-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4>Samsung Launches Health Assistant Beta \u2014 First Fully Integrated AI-Powered Personal Health Assistant<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Read more<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"article-content\">\n\t\t<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>As an indication of the high quality of <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research<\/a> being pursued under this program, this year&#8217;s competition received over 400 proposal submissions from over 130 top universities across North America. The awardees for this cohort include Stanford University, CMU, University of Washington, Princeton University, University of Michigan, Purdue University and University of Victoria, among other leading universities.<\/p>\n<p>Selected projects span a broad range of <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research<\/a> areas, including Agentic AI, Physical AI, Advanced Communications, Multimedia, Digital Health, and AI Security. The selected awardees, after engaging as partners, will join the 27 university partners to work closely with SRA and drive innovations for the future.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87240\" src=\"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2176\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final.png 2176w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final-600x148.png 600w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final-950x235.png 950w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final-1536x380.png 1536w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final-2048x506.png 2048w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084425\/President-Wonil-Rho_Final-664x164.png 664w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2176px) 100vw, 2176px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSRA is committed to promoting excellence at the frontier of innovation through collaboration with the world leading scientists in North America. Through <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the START Program<\/a>, we provide a valuable opportunity for such collaborations to measurably translate into real-world impact. By combining profound academic insights with our robust engineering capabilities, we aim to accelerate the development of next-generation technologies. We look forward to pursuing the exciting ideas proposed by the awardees in this current cohort,\u201d said Wonil Roh, President of SRA.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87241\" src=\"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2172\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna.png 2172w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna-600x149.png 600w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna-950x235.png 950w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna-1536x380.png 1536w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna-2048x507.png 2048w, https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084430\/Professor-Ranjay-Krishna-664x164.png 664w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2172px) 100vw, 2172px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The START Program<\/a> has been a valuable catalyst for our research at the University of Washington. Our Year 1 collaboration with SRA&#8217;s AI Center developed a new multimodal reasoning approach using visual representations as working memory. SRA\u2019s researchers brought thoughtful technical feedback and practical perspective to the project. I&#8217;m excited to build on this work in Year 2 as we advance toward robotic agents that visually reason to act. I strongly recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/sra.samsung.com\/collaboration\/start\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the START Program<\/a> to universities seeking high-impact research partnerships.&#8221; said Professor Ranjay Krishna, University of Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samsung Research America (SRA) has selected eight research projects for its 2026 Strategic Alliance for Research and Technology (START) Program cohort, expanding collaboration with leading universities across North America to advance research in emerging technology areas. The START Program reflects Samsung Electronics\u2019 long-standing commitment to identify the best opportunities in the US and Canadian innovation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29719],"tags":[953,16139,20085,951],"blue-badge":[],"class_list":["post-87238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-digital-health","tag-robotics","tag-samsung-research-america"],"acf":{"turn_off_retargeting":false},"fimg_mobile_url":"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084934\/Recommended-Articles-268x178-48-600x600.png","fimg_url":"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21084934\/Recommended-Articles-268x178-48-424x283.png","primary_category":{"term_id":29719,"name":"Corporate","slug":"corporate","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":29719,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1042,"filter":"raw","term_link":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/category\/corporate\/","term_path":"corporate"},"badge":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87238"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87249,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87238\/revisions\/87249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87238"},{"taxonomy":"blue-badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blue-badge?post=87238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}