A non-invasive diabetes device and safe kitchen utensils for people with disabilities took top honours in Samsung’s 2022 Solve for Tomorrow competition.

Delivered in partnership with MOTAT, Solve for Tomorrow is a celebration of young people using design thinking and STEAM to innovate and solve issues in their communities – helping to change the world for good.

Howick College’s Eva Malez, Htet Waiyan, Lennox Dilworth and Kurt Marshall’s were crowned the winners for a Non-Invasive Diabetics Device, which aimed to devise a more practical and less invasive way for diabetics to measure their glucose levels.

“I was absolutely blown away with the calibre of entries this year, especially the top two teams,” said judge, Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles. “What was exceptional about the Non-Invasive Diabetics Device was not only did this group ideate a breathing device and app to measure blood glucose levels for diabetics, they prototyped it, too!

“The science behind this idea is incredible and I haven’t seen anything like it. It was a close race between first and second though, as the other project, Kitchen Tools Reimagined, really stood out to me as well.”

Safe kitchen utensils

Second place went to a group of students from Mount Richmond Special School in Auckland, for their idea Kitchen Tools Reimagined, which created kitchen utensils that are safe for people with disabilities to use, allowing everyone to participate in daily cooking activities.

“This entry tackled a really important issue and what particularly made it shine was the team’s ability to take on feedback,” commented fellow judge Julie Baker, Education Manager at MOTAT. “During the project plan phase of the competition, the judges asked to see more user feedback, and the team really took this on board and implemented it throughout their submission, which got a huge tick of approval from me.”

Two entries in this year’s competition were highly commended: Brooklyn’s Nighttime Heroes by Brooklyn Johns from St Mary’s School Rotorua, and Be Cool Bike to School by Xavier Wasek-Webb and Tristan Jayasuriya from Campbell’s Bay School and Remuera Intermediate. The first and second place winners shared a prize pool of $20,000 in cash and Samsung tech for them and their schools, with the highly commended entries also winning Samsung technology.

Creativity and originality

Launched in the US in 2010, the competition has been hugely influential internationally, with more than two million students and teachers participating across 33 countries. This is the New Zealand competition’s second year and participants were tasked to identify and create a solution for an issue important to them and their community, which were then judged on creativity and originality, relevance to the community, feasibility of the solution, presentation, and application of STEAM.

“Kiwi kids really took the competition up a notch this year, and it was truly inspiring to read all of the submissions,” added HM Chun, Head of Samsung Electronics New Zealand. “Changing the world for good is what the Solve for Tomorrow contest is all about and this is exactly what each and every entry showed, not just the winners.”

 Find out more about the competition at motat.nz/learning/samsung-solve-for-tomorrow-2022-competition

INTERFACE October 2022