Samsung Names Finalists To $1M Tech Awards

TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 3/2/2011

Ridgefield Park, N.J. - Samsung has named the top five finalists in its nationwide $1 million Solve for Tomorrow contest, which is part of the company's Hope for Children initiative.

Samsung's Hope for Children provides tools and technologies that empower young people to learn and collaborate to improve our communities, the company said.

More than 1,100 schools from across the country responded to the question: "How can science or math help improve the environment in your community?" Samsung's own employee volunteers reached out to public schools across the United States to encourage participation in this national competition.

The finalists are: Patchogue Medford High School, Medford, N.Y.; Kokhanok School, Kokhanok, Alaska; South Shore Charter Public School, Norwell, Mass.; West Salem High School, Salem, Ore.; and Wheeling High School, Wheeling, Ill. Finalists' videos can be seen at www.samsung.com/solvefortomorrow.

These finalists will be awarded $80,000 in technology prizes and representatives from these finalist schools will be flown in to New York City for participation in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Awards Ceremony at the Samsung Experience. At the ceremony, a grand-prize winner will be announced for the top award of $155,000 in technology prizes from Samsung, Microsoft, DirecTV and the Adobe Foundation.

Judges included David Steel, executive VP of strategy and corporate communications, Samsung Electronics America; Steve Smith, TWICE's editor in chief; and representatives from Microsoft, the Adobe Foundation, the National Environmental Education Foundation, Communities in Schools, Great Schools, USA Today Education and Change the Equation.

Samsung received more than 1,100 submissions from around the country and selected 50 finalists to participate in the next phase of the contest. The 50 finalists received video-creation kits that included a Samsung laptop, camcorder and software from Adobe. The top 10 finalists were featured for online voting at www.samsung.com/solvefortomorrow. During the final phase of voting, Samsung's panel of judges selected the top five finalists.

The grand-prize winner will be announced at the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Awards Ceremony at the Samsung Experience in New York on April 7, 2011. Additional information is available through the Samsung Facebook Solve tab at www.facebook.com/samsungusa. To learn more about the Samsung Hope for Children initiative, visit www.samsung.com/hope.