The Organizing Committee of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 would like to extend our congratulations to the Top 25 teams in the Secondary School category and the Top 25 teams in the High School category for successfully advancing through Round 1 – the Preliminary Round and officially qualifying for Round 2 – the Product Development Round.
This achievement is a well-deserved recognition of the students' creativity, initiative, and perseverance, as well as the dedicated support of their teachers throughout the competition. During the Product Development Round, the 50 selected teams will continue refining their ideas, expanding their knowledge, enhancing their solutions, and gradually transforming their concepts into practical products and prototypes. The Organizing Committee wishes all teams continued success as they embrace learning, innovation, and determination in the challenges ahead.
A High-Quality Competition Season with Nearly 3,000 Entries Nationwide
According to the Judging Panel, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 received nearly 3,000 submissions from secondary and high school students across Vietnam, demonstrating the competition's growing influence and students' increasing enthusiasm for STEM education. With only 50 teams advancing to the next stage, the acceptance rate for the Preliminary Round was approximately 1.7%, reflecting the highly competitive nature of this year's competition.
The submitted projects impressed the Judging Panel with their diversity, practical relevance, and close connection to local challenges, including disaster warning systems, saltwater intrusion monitoring, water pollution detection, assistive technologies for the visually impaired, school violence prevention, smart agriculture, and environmental protection. These socially meaningful topics reflect students' strong awareness of the pressing issues facing their communities and the nation.
Many projects also demonstrated students' ability to keep pace with emerging technologies by incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), AIoT, LoRa, and other advanced technologies. Several teams developed working prototypes, conducted real-world testing, and adopted scientific, interdisciplinary approaches while emphasizing solution feasibility. The Judging Panel also implemented a rigorous academic integrity review process to ensure that all selected projects genuinely reflected the teams' capabilities, creativity, and honest efforts.
For the Secondary School category, the Judging Panel highly appreciated the diversity of ideas and the increasingly systematic research approaches demonstrated by participants. Many projects featured well-developed implementation plans and reasonably detailed financial proposals. Notably, numerous outstanding entries combined human-centered thinking with Industry 4.0 technologies and circular economy principles to address environmental and community challenges, while showcasing interdisciplinary knowledge integration and a strong willingness to experiment and learn through practice.
This year's competition attracted participants from all three regions of Vietnam, demonstrating that the STEM movement continues to expand beyond major cities to reach remote, mountainous, border, and rural communities. According to the Judging Panel, this year's competition stood out for its high academic quality, consistently strong submissions, and rich local identity. These achievements provide a solid foundation for teams to further refine their solutions, develop highly applicable products, and create meaningful value for their communities during the Product Development Round.
Alongside these strengths, the Judging Panel encouraged participating teams to further enhance the quality of their research by strengthening data validation, refining technical designs and prototypes, developing more comprehensive financial plans, and using AI tools transparently and responsibly. These will be key factors in helping projects reach their full potential in the subsequent stages of the competition.
Every Journey Is a Success
For the teams that did not make this year's Top 50, the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 journey remains an invaluable learning experience. Throughout the competition, students worked together to build effective teams, learn to listen and collaborate, share responsibilities, and work toward common goals. They also developed essential skills such as creative thinking, problem-solving, presentation, teamwork, and, most importantly, the Design Thinking methodology to systematically identify and solve real-world challenges in both learning and everyday life.
The Organizing Committee believes that every idea developed, every skill acquired, and every experience gained throughout this journey represents an achievement to be proud of. We hope all participants will continue pursuing their passion for STEM, further develop their promising ideas, and return even stronger for Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2027.
The Organizing Committee sincerely thanks all teachers, students, and parents for their support and participation in making the Preliminary Round a success, filled with creative ideas and meaningful community-oriented solutions. We wish the Top 50 teams every success as they continue to shine and deliver innovative products in the upcoming Product Development Round.
