Solve for Tomorrow: Young Minds Find Innovative Solutions Amidst Rising Heatwaves and Water Stress – News18

2023 is on track to being the hottest year on record. Heatwaves have been the norm for traditionally warm places like Asia, Middle East and Africa for decades now. But as the last few years have proven, even Scandinavian countries now have heat waves – as of August, both Canada and Greece were battling wildfires, and Italy, Spain and Portugal baked in 40 degree plus heat. For the first time, there is global consensus that heat waves should be named, just as hurricanes are.

While heat waves are an annoyance to anyone making summer travel plans, they can be downright deadly for those who work in the sun. Construction workers, farm workers, delivery boys, security guards, and even emergency staff like firemen and policemen are at greater risk of heat exhaustion, heat stroke and other heat related illnesses.

Of course, nothing beats the heat like a chilled glass of water. But with climate change, increased freshwater demands for both industry and agriculture, we may soon be heading into a period of freshwater shortages. Experts predict that by 2025 nearly two-thirds of the world’s countries will be water-stressed, i.e. demand for water will exceed supply.

For India, where 1.4 billion people live, this is a ticking time bomb. Fortunately, we have the best minds in the country working on these problems. These are young, intrepid innovators who see solutions, where most grown ups see insurmountable problems. What these innovators lack in experience, they make up for in enthusiasm.

And now, the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition is offering them the opportunity as well as and the right dose of experience through mentors to their ideas into action.

The second year of the competition, which kicked off in April this year, has gone through multiple rounds and now it’s down to the Top 10 teams.

Two of the Top 10 teams in the competition are working on solutions to combat rising temperatures and water shortages.

Team Jalraaj’s Aman Verma is an incredible young man with a dream. He is self-taught, and overcame several challenges to create his solar powered water filter, that converts seawater into potable water. Hailing from a family that makes its living through agriculture, he was inspired to find a solution for his own farm, when limits were placed on water usage due to shortages.

His solution employs several filters, and a distillation process to purify seawater to 80%. For context, existing solutions are only able to achieve a 20% filtration result. Moreover, his solution utilizes solar energy for power, making it green, cost effective and portable. Currently, his solution comes in 4 different prototypes: one for family use, one that is portable and useful when in nature, one model for commercial use, and one for disaster relief, when water supplies are compromised.

While Team Jalraaj is powered by one intrepid inventor, Team Think is powered by three young tinkerers who came together online to solve the problem of keeping farm workers cool in our hot summer sun. Team Think’s solution is a small, wearable personal cooling unit that helps users regulate their body temperature during hot and cold weather. They’ve experimented with various solutions, materials and tested their product in several conditions before settling on the one they have. Their latest prototype is likely to be priced between ₹1000-1500, and users can control it via the device itself, or through an app.

Of course, their mentors are thrilled. Vivek Kumar from the Embedded AI Vision and Camera team at Samsung is Team Jalraaj’s mentor. He expressed his confidence in Aman’s vision and his prototypes and is looking forward to seeing him in the Top 3. Vivek suggests that Jalraaj include other sources of power other than solar as an added plus.

Team Think’s mentor, Vipul Singla who is from Samsung’s e-Commerce Sales team, is very proud of all the research that has gone into Team Think’s solution, and of the product’s USP – this is a personal cooling device that can adapt to cold weather by providing gentle warmth too! Vipul’s only feedback is to reduce the size and weight of the product as much as possible, and that the team do their market research to identify the right target customers to enable easy marketing.

Ideas and solutions like these, and many more are waiting for you at Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. Watch the latest episode here , and visit the Solve for Tomorrow website to keep up with Top 10 teams as they progress at breakneck speed towards the grand finale!

This is a partnered post.