Samsung Innovation Awards 2016 were announced at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. These awards aim to recognize and reward innovations that have the potential to revolutionize everyday living and enable students to take their ideas to the next level.
The first prize went to the team comprising Shalaka Kulkarni, Umang Chhaparia and Mustafa Lokhandwala. Their work was on road quality measurement, monitoring and mapping solution. Javed Shaikh won the second prize for proposing new materials to cool electronic equipment. The duo Ritesh Saurabh and Kumar Pratik won the third prize for designing smart trash cans to expedite and optimize garbage collection. The top three winners were given away prizes worth INR 3.5 lakhs.
Samsung Innovation Awards 2016 saw an overwhelming response, with five teams getting an opportunity to present their ideas to the jury comprising Dr. Aloknath De; Dr. Debjani Paul and Prof. Swaroop Ganguly, from IIT-Bombay. The other finalists received merit prizes of INR 40,000. Samsung R&D Institute – Bangalore will engage with the award winners to further develop their innovations.
Path-breaking innovations were showcased at the competition. The innovative product ideas and solutions presented were across themes including advanced materials, applications of intelligent solutions in smart spaces/cities and assistive technologies for health.
The 2016 edition of the Samsung Innovation Awards was initiated at IIT-Bombay campus three months ago, through an open entry, where students submitted their innovative ideas. The shortlisting process was led by professors from IIT-Bombay and the SRI-B team, which also selected the finalists. The final teams presented their ideas to the jury at the IIT-Bombay campus. The winning project was selected based on the degree of innovation, feasibility, usability, relevance and overall impact on masses.
Conceptualised in 2011, the Samsung Innovation Awards seek to support and encourage young talent who have an innovative approach and look to improvise different systems and processes.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Aloknath De, Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute, India – Bangalore, said, “This platform is to encourage students to conceptualize and build innovative solutions in emerging topics of artificial intelligence, convergence, computer vision and sensor-based solutions. It is heartening to see entrepreneurial and multi-disciplinary approach adopted by young innovators. This is very much in line with Samsung India’s mission to foster meaningful innovations at every level of research-to-market journey.”
