Over 5,000 students from 20 top institutions across India participated in the sixth edition of Samsung E.D.G.E. campus programme conducted by Samsung India. Raghav Talwar, Abhinav Nahata, and Kush Ganatra of Team AKR Menders from IIT Madras took home the first prize. Their innovative solution to optimise each step of the user journey in the context of a Direct to Consumer (D2C) business using AI recommendation, AR/VR, IoT & QR Code integration impressed the jury and won them a cash prize of ₹4 lakh, and Samsung’s flagship smartphones.
Team Purple of ISB Hyderabad, with their solution for D2C business that integrated a customer’s journey in an offline store with online, came second. They won a cash prize of ₹2 lakh and pre-placement interviews with Samsung.
Team Trifecta of FMS Delhi finished third for presenting a solution to smoothen the journey of a consumer and provide an end-to-end experience. The team was awarded a cash prize of ₹1 lakh.
This year too, to ensure the safety of all participants, the Samsung E.D.G.E. campus programme was conducted virtually. The virtual finale was attended by Ken Kang, President & CEO, Samsung SWA and other senior leaders of Samsung India.
“As a platform, Samsung E.D.G.E. endeavours to discover and nurture the leaders of tomorrow and we are extremely delighted with the massive increase in participation rate year on year and the impressive innovative solutions presented this season,” said Sameer Wadhawan, Head, Human Resources, Samsung India.
The two-month programme is conducted over three rounds of rigorous evaluation. The first round requires each participating team to present an executive summary after thorough research and ideation. Post evaluation, one team is selected from each campus. They work on a case study, submit and present their detailed solutions in the regional round. This year, nine teams were shortlisted and mentored by Samsung’s top brass to battle it out for the top three spots in the national round.
Samsung E.D.G.E. is a nationwide campus platform that provides an opportunity to showcase the business acumen, strategic thinking and leadership skills of students’ each year. The programme, which started in 2016, sees the brightest minds from top B-schools, engineering and design institutes.