Sustainability

Team Optimum took the winning title of this year’s competition with a game-changing idea that uses new technology as a force for good by better harnessing renewable energy as a way to reduce carbon emissions. 

Samuel Mo (16) and Dexter Rigby (17), the Hertfordshire residents behind team Optimum created a mobile app that uses AI to schedule when smart devices and IoT products consume power, so that they use renewable energy when it’s generated, in a bid to phase​ out fossil fuels.​

When asked about entering the competition, the winners explained “We’re very passionate about making a difference and we love technology as well. So we thought we’d go for it.”

“We found various problems that we thought, well how can we solve this with the technology we’re interested in?” 

A combination of Samsung and industry experts helped select Optimum as this year’s winner in the 16-18 age category including Zubair Junjunia, Generation17 Young Leader​ and ZNotes Founder. Zubair commented that the idea was “really well-defined and presented. They thought through various challenges and responded well to technical questions,” he said.

As part of the Solve for Tomorrow programme, Optimum took part in 8 weeks of expert-led workshops to help them develop their design thinking, prototyping and pitching skills. They were also supported throughout the journey by their Samsung Mentor Alan Baldwin, Head of Technology Innovation, Samsung R&D UK.

When we asked Team Optimum for their message to other young people thinking about getting involved they had this advice: “Definitely enter [Solve for Tomorrow], just throw yourself at it. Any ideas you've had you can use, even if you think well, is this good enough yet, is it not? It will grow through the competition so much to something new.” 

Samuel and Dexter secured a collective £10,000 cash prize and will take part in the Solve for Tomorrow accelerator phase to help them plan out the future of Optimum. We excited to see what’s next for this tech savvy duo…