IIT Madras wins top honours in first season of Samsung E.D.G.E. campus program

Samsung India conducted the first season of its campus program Samsung E.D.G.E. with participation from the country's brightest minds at leading B-schools and engineering colleges.

The program has been designed to engage with leading B-school and engineering talent across India with students getting an opportunity to interact with the leadership team at Samsung, work on real-world business problems and come up with their unique solutions.

The team from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras emerged as the winner in the National Round of the program. The first runner up was the team from XLRI Jamshedpur while the second runner up was from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

Twelve of the top teams that were winners from all zonal rounds competed at the grand finale of the Samsung E.D.G.E. program, which was held in Gurgaon on January 14, 2017.

The winning team members received a prize of INR 3 lakh and a Gear S3 smartwatch each while the team that came second got a prize of INR 1.5 lakh. The third team received a prize of INR 75,000.

Students from the top two teams were designated Samsung Campus Ambassadors and second year MBA students received a pre placement interview from Samsung.

All 12 teams that reached the National Round also received vouchers worth INR 10,000.

The winning team from IIT Madras presented a solution on leadership strategy in digital payments using a disruptive technology backbone built around Samsung's mobile payment service Samsung Pay that has been launched globally.

Commenting on the successful culmination of the program, Udaiy Khanna, Vice President - Human Resources, Samsung India, said, "The response from students has been overwhelming and we are extremely happy with the success of the first season of the Samsung E.D.G.E. program. At Samsung, we always strive to encourage young minds and nurture the spirit of innovation among them."

Launched in December 2016, Samsung E.D.G.E. is a first-of-its-kind campus program, to provide a platform that gives the country's brightest students at leading B-schools and engineering colleges an opportunity to get a head-start in their careers.

Samsung E.D.G.E. comprised of three rounds. Three teams per campus were shortlisted for the Zonal Round in which all the teams closely worked on a case study and presented their unique solutions. A total of 45 teams from across 15 campuses were shortlisted for the Zonal Round in which the participants worked on different case studies and presented their unique solutions.