Sustainability

Nottingham based Eseose Okotako (23) of team Athena was announced as the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025 winner in the 18-25 category with her impressive idea. 

Athena is a haptic collar that syncs with any audio to translate music into tailored vibrations, allowing d/Deaf users to feel melody, rhythm and emotion.

Ese was inspired by the idea of resonating so deeply with music that you could feel yourself ‘inside’ your favourite song. She wanted to create a more immersive experience when listening to music, and when researching this concept in more detail, she came across the concept of using vibrations to help d/Deaf people feel music.

“I want all of my work to promote and encourage enjoyment, and through this process I ended up researching how quality of life affects the world around us tangibly, and saw the statistics which further motivated me. Deaf people deserve enjoyment; they deserve music”.

Ese was on a mission to achieve full body vibration with minimum hardware, as full body vibration is necessary for D/deaf people to experience music. She also wanted the offering to be stylish, and to convey more than just the music bass, like other products that exist on the market. From there Athena was born.

On her experience taking part in Solve for Tomorrow, Ese said: “I really enjoyed Phase 2's prototyping workshop; it really forced me to deviate from my original plans and consider alternative solutions. The whole process forces you to be more expansive. Getting more detailed with research and more insight from the target audience to truly empathise with my consumer, which ended up being the cure for the one-track-mindedness that I didn’t even know I had.

It was an amazing experience being a part of this year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. You don't need qualifications or a team to enter – just a great idea! The experience has been incredibly valuable and helped with my confidence, and I strongly encourage anyone who is interested to give it a go. I'm glad I did!”

Ese was mentored by Samsung colleague Adam Brown – Head of Channel Sales, MX B2B. This is Adam’s third year as a Samsung mentor, and he was thrilled to have supported Ese to the Solve for Tomorrow finals:

“I remember our first meeting well! Ese was an irrepressible bundle of energy, with a sharp mind and a big smile - wrestling with what seemed like a whirlwind of ideas and research, pictures, and notes.

She had this deceptively simple but amazingly powerful belief about the transformative power of music, and the desire to make it accessible through technology. Over the weeks and months of the competition and aided by the workshops and hands on sessions, I had the incredible privilege to see her idea coalesce into a proper plan for an incredible product.

I’m absolutely delighted she’s won, because I know how hard she’s worked and also how incredible the other competitors were. I can’t wait to see how Athena develops from here!”

As well as the £10,000 cash prize and Samsung tech bundle, Ese won 3 additional months of expert mentoring, and additional workshops led by Foundervine, to help her progress the idea.

More details on how to enter the next Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition will be announced later this year.