History was made as the inaugural champion of Samsung Create National Idea Contest was unfolded last August 24 at the Melchor Hall of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Launched November of last year, the competition was borne from the corporate citizenship vision of Samsung R&D Institute Philippines (SRPH) - "Together for Tomorrow:Enabling People." Students and young professionals across the country were asked to create innovative technological applications under the theme, "Ideate to Elevate: Unfold the future of the Filipinos using the latest global tech trends: Artificial Intelligence, Immersive/Metaverse, Robotics, and Network/Connectivity.”

Preliminary judging was done last May 5, with SRPH Heads serving as judges. Out of hundreds of applicants, ten teams were chosen as finalists to compete for the top plum. Up until the finals event, these 10 teams were mentored by brilliant SRPH engineers, who shared their expertise with the contestants in order to further improve their ideas.

The finals event was attended by leaders of Samsung R&D Institute Philippines, including Managing Director Yongduk Hwang, Chief Operations Office Honggeun Lee, Chief Financial Officer Louis Kim, Mr. Richard Guinto, Mr. Michael Pascua, and Ms. Rohayna Brillantes.

Also in attendance were Undersecretary-designate for Administration Atty. Jane Bacayo and Director for Information and Communications Technology Services Mr. Honorio Flameño from the Department of Agriculture, Chief SRS for the Research & Development Management Division of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development Mr. Paul Ernest de Leon, officer of the Medical Robotics and AI R&D Management Division of PCHRD-DOST Ms. Trish Decena and Ms. Sky Olaguer from the Department of Science and Technology, and Presidential Staff Officer III, Youth Organization Registration Program Secretariat, Social Marketing Division of the National Youth Commission Ms. Shane Kay Taay.

The teams presented their innovative ideas, Team Open Soars from the Bulacan State University took the coveted spot and became the inaugural champion of Samsung Create with their entry, Meconium, an AI-powered mobile application that analyzes babies’ health through their stool. Coming in second is Team Pandayan from UP Diliman and their smart trash bin takEp that optimizes garbage collection and waste management, while Team DM from Mapua Malayan Colleges Laguna took third with MoChat, a smart watch app that sends messages through gesture detection.

The members of the winning team were each awarded a brand new Samsung Galaxy Fold 4, while second and third each received a Samsung Galaxy Flip 4 and Samsung 55’’ Gaming monitor, respectively, and Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 were given to the remaining finalists.

Yongduk Hwang, Vice President and Managing Director for SRPH, expressed high hopes for the Filipino youth and emphasized Samsung’s commitment to hone Filipino talent through collaborative projects like Samsung Create.

“It is our hope that with Samsung Create, we will be able to continue to reach out to young talent and grow our local collaboration, not only for business contributions with Samsung, but also towards creating a world class digital Filipino economy,” said Hwang.

Samsung Create has further proven that Filipinos have great potential in terms of research and innovation, and Samsung R&D Institute Philippines will continue its efforts to discover and cultivate Filipino innovators.