Birmingham Times
Students at South Hampton K-8 School have placed among the top 10 national finalists for Samsung’s 2025-2026 “Solve for Tomorrow” competition.
Samsung’s “Solve for Tomorrow” competition gives students in grades 6-12 the opportunity to work together and explore how science, technology, engineering and math can be used to create change in their communities.
“We believe that technology should protect people,” said James Speights, a South Hampton K-8 7th grader.
Details on South Hampton’s project can be found here. For this project, the Birmingham City Schools students focused on tornado preparedness, developing a solar-powered and sensor-based tornado monitoring and alert system.
Their project, Storm Sentinels, would use Raspberry Pi technology to send out early warning text messages to over 1,000 families in a tornado’s path. The plan would add valuable time for people to take shelter.
“We can’t stop the storms, but we can prevent tragedy,” said Areille Judkins, an 8th grader. “We are proud to be a part of solutions that can help strengthen communities and save lives,” she added.
Voting is now open for the Community Choice Award on Samsung’s competition website.
South Hampton K-8 student Jason Walton, an 8th grader, talks about their “Solve for Tomorrow” project. (Samsung)
Samsung “Solve for Tomorrow” is open to public school students in grades 6-12. Only schools that are at least 50% publicly funded are eligible to compete. Students work together to come up with a project plan, and teachers submit the team’s application.
