Samsung, India’s largest consumer electronics brand, is expanding its unique industry-academia program Samsung PRISM (Preparing and Inspiring Student Minds) to 70 engineering colleges in India by 2025, aiming to stimulate the Indian innovation ecosystem and make students industry-ready. The program has been successful in driving engineering students to file patents and publish technical papers in cutting-edge domains such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and IoT, strengthening Samsung’s vision of Powering Digital India.
Samsung PRISM was started in 2020 and in the last two years, over 4,500 engineering students and 1,000 professors have worked with SRI-B engineers to deliver live projects successfully. During this time, student and professor teams have filed multiple patents along with SRI-B engineers and have published several research papers.
As part of the program, Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore (SRI-B) collaborates with students and faculty at engineering colleges, giving them research as well as development projects (worklets) to be executed over four to six months.
Teams of students and professors work on live R&D projects in cutting-edge technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence (including vision tech), Machine Learning, the Internet of Things & Connected Devices, and 5G networks. This has helped build capabilities among students that meet industry needs.
Students from engineering colleges that are in top positions in the Government of India’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings from across the country have participated in the program so far.
“Samsung PRISM program is our contribution to developing an innovation mindset among the youth of India, building on the strengths of our academia and engineering student community. Working with Samsung, young students have got hands-on exposure to live projects of an R&D center and professors have got more practical industry experience. This is making students industry-ready and is furthering our vision of Powering Digital India,” said Srimanu Prasad, Head of Tech Strategy, Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore.
“Over the last two years, we have already seen strong results, with student teams filing patents and publishing technical papers in cutting edge domains,” Prasad added.
With the PRISM program, Samsung seeks to build a skilled workforce of future innovators in India. All students are given certificates by SRI-B on project completion, and so far over 300 teams have been recognized for their exceptional work and have been rewarded as well.
Each project is taken up by a team of three students and one professor, with a mentor from SRI-B who guides, trains them, and conducts regular reviews. Each engineering college has multiple teams and students are selected based on a test conducted by SRI-B.
Students who have participated in the PRISM program said the collaborative environment has been very helpful. Through the program, they have been able to work on challenging problem statements and gain valuable insights into the workings of large companies in the industry. Professors said the program has helped them upgrade their technical skills and gain practical industry experience.
SRI-B, which is Samsung’s largest R&D facility outside of Korea, is focused on Communication Protocols, Multimedia (including Camera Solutions), AD Tech, Data Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and IoT. The center has built end-to-end expertise in COEs through product management and UX Design thinking. The R&D centre’s main objective is to develop global product differentiation and solutions for the Indian market by identifying unique insights and delivering value to consumers. So far, the R&D centre has filed over 3,500 patents in India and over 7,500 patents globally.