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Program Overview and Research Planning

Jun 30, 2025

Overview

This lecture introduced the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025 program, onboarding procedures, an overview of the UPP (Samsung for Education) benefits, competition structure, and a detailed introduction to design thinking and research planning for project development.

Program Introduction & Onboarding

  • Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025 is a STEM competition with a strong learning and mentoring component.
  • Participants include students from high school, vocational schools, Islamic schools, and universities (D3, D4, S1) across Indonesia.
  • Registration and attendance must be recorded via provided links or QR codes.
  • Major program stages include onboarding, UPP socialization, design thinking workshops, and AI learning.

UPP Program (Samsung for Education)

  • UPP is a Samsung online platform providing special discounts on Samsung products (up to 17% for mobile/tablets, up to 46% for home appliances).
  • Eligibility includes students, teachers, lecturers, and educational staff with specific domain emails or access codes.
  • Purchases are for personal, not resale, use and have annual quantity and amount limits.
  • Accessible via Samsung account and educational email or access code SFT 2025.

Competition Structure & Timeline

  • The competition offers two main themes: environment & sustainability, and sports & technology for education.
  • Stages: preliminary (concept paper), design thinking workshop, revised concept paper submission, semifinal (AI workshop), mentoring & prototyping, final submission, and demo day.
  • Each team has 2–4 members and receives mentorship from both industry (Samsung) and educational partners.
  • Timeline and information updates are communicated via email, website, and WhatsApp groups.

Design Thinking Workshop

  • Design thinking is a flexible, human-centered approach to problem solving through stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
  • Emphasis on understanding user needs deeply through empathy, not just business or technology feasibility.
  • Research methods include interviews, observations, surveys, and secondary research; choice of method depends on resources and project goals.
  • Project plan should define research background, objectives, target users, and chosen methods.

Research Planning & Empathy Stage

  • Research begins with setting a clear objective and understanding background context.
  • Empathy involves understanding users’ feelings, motivations, and pain points; methods include interviews and observation.
  • Choose research scope and methods based on available time, team size, and resources.
  • Primary research offers specificity but may be resource-intensive; secondary research is more efficient but may lack depth.

Q&A Highlights

  • Data for the empathy stage can be collected through interviews, observations, and secondary research.
  • Secondary research is allowed when time or access is limited, but combining methods strengthens results.
  • Project scope should be focused, with clear objectives and practical constraints to avoid overextension.

Key Terms & Definitions

  • Design Thinking — A human-centered, iterative process for innovative problem solving consisting of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test stages.
  • UPP (Samsung for Education) — Platform for academic community to obtain discounted Samsung products for personal use.
  • Empathy (in design) — Deep understanding and sharing of users’ feelings and challenges to inform solutions.
  • Primary Research — Data collected directly from users (e.g., interviews, observations).
  • Secondary Research — Data gathered from existing sources (e.g., articles, studies).

Action Items / Next Steps

  • Complete attendance and check-in via Skill Room or provided links.
  • Join WhatsApp group for updates.
  • Fill out pre-test and post-test surveys as instructed.
  • Begin drafting project plan with research background and chosen methods.
  • Prepare for the next design thinking workshop session.