Since its launch in 2014, every year the enthusiasm and participation in Soluciones para el Futuro de Samsung contest has grown, a program that has become a hotbed of projects to mitigate social problems with special emphasis on environment and community economy, reflecting the concern of young people to solve these important issues in the Central American and Caribbean region.
Present throughout Latin America since 2014, the "Soluciones para El Futuro" program aims to develop the potential of public school students so that they can realize their dreams and implement significant social changes in their communities, using technology as a tool to transform people's lives.
Thus, most of the projects presented and the winners have been transversal to social issues in the region. In 2014, the contest was only carried out in Panama, and on that occasion the Centro Educativo Primer Ciclo Panamá, from Central Panama, was the winner with its proposal "Vertical gardens with recycled materials as an alternative to the scarce green areas in the metropolitan area of Panama". The team presented an innovative idea to "reforest" urban spaces.
The following year, IPT Abel Tapiero Miranda, from Chiriquí, Panama, won first place with its "Water Collector", an environmental project on the use of rainwater and dew. This educational institute took on the challenge of presenting a project each year for the Solutions for the Future 2015-2016 contest, and it became practically one more subject within the last two grades of high school.
For the 2017-2018 edition, the Liceo Científico Dr. Miguel Canela Lázaro high school in the Hermanas Mirabal province of the Dominican Republic won with its project "You Can See Too," designed to help people with severe visual impairments overcome the lack of signage for the blind in enclosed public spaces. It is a low-cost electronic virtual location device, which would indicate the main facilities provided by an enclosed public space upon entering it. For example, in a bus station, the device would help to find from the ticket office to buy tickets, to the restrooms or a place to eat.
In 2019, the SFT award returns to Panama with IPT Abel Tapiero Miranda winning its second competition with "A Sweet Purpose", a project to repollinate a sector in which the school is located. This project included reforestation, the construction of an automated pollination robot and an artificial bee colony.
Last year, despite the pandemic, the contest reached a milestone with its expansion to eight countries in the region. With the support of the NGO Glasswing International, a total of 2,394 ideas were received, of which three per country were chosen to participate in the grand final.
In total, 24 teams worked hard to have the honor of representing their country and then the region.
The winner of the 2020 edition was Costa Rica, with its Autogreen project, an automated and intelligent irrigation system for the agricultural sector of our community, which can be controlled remotely through an application, using clean energy for its operation and helping farmers to improve their production processes, providing them with highly relevant information for their care and at the same time benefiting the environment and saving resources.
For this 2021 edition, there will be nine participating countries, with the inclusion of Venezuela, as well as Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
Samsung invites all students and teachers to get motivated and participate in Solve For Tomorrow, the first step is very simple, if you have an innovative idea with positive impact, you can register through a simple form at www.solvefortomorrow.com or
www.solucionesparaelfuturo.com.
The registration of ideas will be open until july 9th, which would be the first step to live an incredible experience in which participants will be able to receive many prizes.
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