Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is expanding its educational support for the 2026–2027 competition. In a November 2 announcement, Samsung described new AI learning resources developed with the Mark Cuban Foundation, an expanded role for MIT Solve and continued involvement from entrepreneur Emma Grede. The initiative focuses on student projects addressing community challenges. 

Samsung says the competition is open to U.S. public-school students in grades 6–12, with teachers entering on behalf of their classrooms. Applications are due November 23, 2026, subject to the program’s current terms.

The positive educational opportunity is to connect technical learning with a problem students can observe directly.

That connection can make STEM work more meaningful. A project becomes easier to discuss when students understand who experiences the problem and what improvement would look like.

A good project begins before the technology

Students often encounter innovation through finished products. A classroom project can reveal the earlier work of defining a useful problem.

Consider a hypothetical team examining confusion around a school’s shared equipment. Before proposing an app or sensor, students could observe the routine and speak with the people involved.

They might discover that the issue is unclear labeling, an inconsistent booking process or difficulty knowing where an item belongs.

Each finding points toward a different response. Starting with the problem helps prevent the technology from becoming an answer in search of a question.

This is a suggested project method rather than a description of a specific competition entry.

AI literacy should include checking the result

An AI curriculum can be valuable when it helps students understand both the possibilities and the limits of generated output.

A useful exercise could ask students to compare an AI suggestion with evidence gathered from their community. Does the suggestion address the actual situation? Does it assume resources the school does not have? Can its factual statements be checked?

Those questions turn a tool demonstration into a reasoning task.

Students should also be able to explain which parts of the project they created, which assistance they used and which decisions they made independently. That record would make the learning easier for teachers and reviewers to assess.

Mentorship is most useful when students remain responsible

A mentor can help a team recognize assumptions, narrow its scope or plan a more useful test.

The strongest interaction would leave students able to explain the next step in their own words. Advice should deepen the team’s understanding rather than replace its decision-making.

For example, a mentor might ask what evidence would show that a proposed solution works. Students could then design a simple comparison and decide what to record.

The educational benefit comes from that process. A polished presentation may impress an audience, but the ability to justify a design choice reveals more about the team’s understanding.

Mentorship should help make that reasoning stronger and more visible.

A prototype should answer one clear question

A first prototype does not need to reproduce every feature of the final idea.

Its purpose could be to test whether users understand an interface, whether a physical arrangement is convenient or whether a measurement can be collected consistently.

A team could write the test question before building. That would help determine what the prototype needs and what can wait.

For an illustrative example, a paper mock-up may be enough to evaluate the order of steps in a proposed service. A simple physical model could reveal whether a component is easy to reach.

The right prototype is the one that produces useful evidence for the next decision.

Community impact needs a defined measure

A project becomes easier to evaluate when students describe the intended improvement precisely.

Instead of promising to transform a whole community, a team could identify a smaller outcome that can be observed. That might involve reducing confusion, making information easier to find or improving the consistency of a routine task.

Students could then record a starting point and compare it with the result of a limited trial.

This approach does not make the project less ambitious. It gives the ambition a measurable foundation.

It also helps teams recognize when an idea needs revision. A disappointing first result can become useful evidence if students understand what it reveals.

Entrepreneurship adds a different perspective

Thinking about how a solution could continue beyond the classroom introduces practical questions.

Who would maintain it? What materials or services would it require? Who would use it regularly? What happens when something stops working?

Students do not need a complete business plan to begin exploring those issues. Even a simple estimate can reveal an overlooked dependency.

A team might discover that its idea requires more support than the intended users can provide. That insight could lead to a simpler, more workable design.

Entrepreneurship education is valuable here when it connects creativity with responsibility for the complete solution.

Teachers can assess the learning along the way

The final presentation should be one part of the assessment.

Teachers could also examine research notes, early sketches, test results and the reasons behind revisions. That evidence would show how the team’s understanding developed.

Individual reflection could help establish each student’s contribution. A learner might explain a mistake, a changed assumption or a skill they can now perform independently.

This makes the project educationally useful even if it does not advance in the competition.

The strongest classroom outcome is a group of students better able to investigate, build, evaluate and explain—not simply a finished object displayed at the end.

Why This Matters

Solve for Tomorrow’s expansion brings additional support to a familiar educational idea: students learn by applying knowledge to a real problem.

The announced partnerships and resources create opportunities, while the quality of the project process will determine how much students gain.

Eligible teachers should confirm the current application requirements and deadline. Classrooms outside the program can still use the underlying approach: identify a local need, build a limited prototype and test it carefully.

That gives young people a constructive role in improving the places they know.