Ada Lovelace, the nineteenth-century mathematician credited with writing the world’s first computer algorithm, gives her name to a day now marked every October to celebrate women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Nearly two centuries on from her work, the question the day poses is still a live one: how do we get more girls into STEM, and keep them there?
One answer is already running in classrooms across the UK and Ireland. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, a free national competition now open for its seventh year, challenges 11-18-year-olds to build a tech-for-good solution to a problem they care about – and it’s quietly helping to close the very confidence gap that Ada Lovelace Day was created to address.
A competition built for the mission
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is delivered with Tech She Can, an organisation dedicated to inspiring girls and women into technology careers, alongside the Design & Technology Association, Design Council and Internet Matters. Students take a problem they care about and turn it into a real prototype, receiving mentoring from Samsung volunteers and access to prototype funding along the way, before pitching to a panel of industry experts at a national final.
The programme’s own data suggests the confidence gap it’s designed to close is narrowing: last year, participants’ self-reported confidence rose from 45% to 73%, while their broader capability across creativity, problem-solving, collaboration and self-management rose from 43% to 65%. Among teachers who took part, 82% say it builds both STEM and life skills, and 71% say it changed how their students see Design & Technology as a subject.
Results that speak for themselves
The competition’s track record makes the case better than any statistic alone. Past winners include Nell, who took the 14-16 category title from County Limerick with AsthmaSense, a device that warns users before an asthma attack starts, and says the experience transformed her confidence with presenting and public speaking – exactly the kind of shift Ada Lovelace Day was created to champion.
Since launching in 2020, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow has reached 401,444 young people and a third of all secondary schools across the UK and Ireland, working toward a goal of one million by 2030.
A timely way to mark the day
For anyone marking Ada Lovelace Day this year – whether that’s sharing the story of a woman in STEM who inspired you, or looking for a practical way to get girls in your own life more excited about technology – Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a live, ongoing programme doing exactly that work, right now, in classrooms across the country.
Entries for this year’s programme are open now and close on 18 January 2027. More information is available at solvefortomorrowuk.com.
