“The Internet is down and my little sister is screaming in the other room. I can’t remember the last time I heard the school bell,” says Heda, a middle school student from Vienna. “I lack motivation and I miss my friends and teachers. I miss the giggling and joking in classrooms we once enjoyed.”

Heda and her friends Kaan, Nikola, and Rihanna have been struggling with the boredom and lack of motivation to study since online learning has started. They also noticed this was a trend that affected not only them but their friends too since the start of the pandemic.

Many of their friends have been staying home alone day after day, from morning to evening whilst their parents work full-time. Without the supportive guardians to aid their learning, the downsides of distance education were hitting them even harder.

The moonlight shines bright on all of us

Heda, Kaan, Nikola, and Rihanna came up with “Moonlight”, an application concept that brings the daily structures a student would have when attending school. For example, the app combines calendars, to-do lists, and alarms – but what sets Moonlight apart is that it connects friends through music.

The four girls believe in the power of music - its ability to help people to focus, work, calm down, or be creative. Students using Moonlight are able to tune into music that best suits how they feel – perhaps they are looking for something soothing or more upbeat. They can send songs to their friends and listen to the music together although they are physically apart. Even when home alone, the students can feel like they are studying together in a classroom.

From the initial conceptualization phase to development, the teammates created Moonlight as a Samsung Solve for Tomorrow project where they could dive deeper into design thinking and programming. The team also enjoyed guidance from Samsung Austria employees who mentored them in developing the prototype.

Rebooting our motivation

In their quest to develop the solution, the students raised questions to an important societal issue, and by thinking of solutions outside the box, they were able to develop Moonlight. Their hard work and thoughtfulness towards the community won them the Grand Prize in Austria’s Solve for Tomorrow.

“I have noticed how the process of thinking about these issues and coming up with ideas have made me and my friends much more motivated,” said Rihanna. “We’ve seen that our ideas can contribute to something and that has made us proud and more confident!”

Kaan agrees. She says that Solve for Tomorrow has rebooted her motivation. “Throughout the project, I have learned how to handle criticism better and turn it into growth. Most of all, I really experienced a lot of things and learned to appreciate the value of teamwork.”