The Samsung E.D.G.E conducted by Samsung India garnered participation from more than 19 leading institutions with a total of 2,370 students as participants. The campus program was concluded on December 1st at Gurugram. The students from IIT Madras bagged the winning tag. The ‘Athena Z’ team comprised of Sudarshan MS, Makesh S and Saurabh Sinha who reached the finals of this national competition and emerged as winners. The second prize was bagged by National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and the third position was won by Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.
The competition was three months long which was a host to participants from numerous and variety of academic backgrounds like MBA, B-Tech, Masters of Social Work and Masters of Design. The zonal rounds were qualified by a total of 10 teams that competed against each other in the national finals of Samsung E.D.G.E program. The winning IIT Madras team received a cumulated sum of INR 3,00,000 along with a Galaxy Note8 smartphone for each member. The second team received an amount of INR 1,50,000 as a prize along with the third team receiving an amount of INR 75,000. The ten teams that participated in the finals received a Samsung voucher which was worth 10,000 INR.
Samsung E.D.G.E is a program designed to usher bright minds from all across India on a single national platform to showcase their unique talents. The students get an opportunity to interact and ideate together with the leadership team at Samsung while working on a real business based platform and provide ideal solutions to various problems. The theme for this year was concentrated around Samsung’s intelligent interface known as Bixby along with its growth opportunities in smart cities. The teams also worked on designing devices that are meant for young single-person based households along with online skilling, certification models, and marketing.
The jury was impressed by the skills expressed by IIT Madras team who generated the idea around creating Samsung’s intelligent interface Bixby to be aptly integrated with the consumer’s daily usage of smartphones. A very innovative product was showcased by NID Ahmedabad that had the potential for making life easier for young single-person households. The IIM Lucknow team ideated a solution around Bixby.
In the word of Mr. BK Lee, Director, Human Resources, Samsung Southwest Asia, “At Samsung, we always strive to encourage young minds and nurture the spirit of innovation among them. We are overjoyed by the level of enthusiasm to participate and ideation by the students at Samsung E.D.G.E. 2017. This year we engaged with students from diverse domains.”
Another team ‘Monimakers’ from IIT Madras won the maiden season of Samsung E.D.G.E. They provided a solution for ‘Leadership Strategy in Digital Payments.’ Two members of this team underwent an internship program that was provided at Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore, and the third bagged an opportunity to work alongside the Samsung Pay Team at the headquarters of Samsung India in Gurugram.
Among these interns, one was the co-author of a paper working along with his mentor at Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore. The intern has been selected to showcase his idea at the Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas in the upcoming year.
Samsung E.D.G.E was launched in December 2016 which was the first-of-its-kind campus-based program that provided a platform to India’s brightest students to show their talent while providing significant insights and building a career. The program comprises of three rounds. The first round is known as campus round where the candidates construct ideas and provide an executive case summary of it. The top teams are selected for the next Zonal round where the team works together to provide unique solutions for numerous case studies. Finally, ten teams are selected who represent their skills at the national round where the winning team is announced.
