Kazakhstan – 2025 – One of the foundational principles of Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow program is that technological innovation has the potential to achieve progress in every industry, in every part of the world. There are few more shining examples of this than “Beelieve,” a remote beehive management solution developed by three students in Kazakhstan: Zhangerey Bekbulat, Amirkhan Aidarkhan, and Adilet Dauleti.

The three graduates of Nazarbayev Intellectual School have taken their project from strength to strength in the past few years, earning third place in their national 2024 Solve for Tomorrow competition and recently winning first place at this year’s AI Sana Generative Nation competition.

Samsung CSR sat down with the three young innovators to learn more about what drives them, what they have learned on their journey, and where they are headed next: a perfect chance to see how Solve for Tomorrow continues to spark meaningful, long-lasting impact long after the competition ends.

Rooted in Home, Driven by a Desire To Problem-Solve

“Since childhood, I’ve personally been fascinated by entomology. I could sit for hours watching these tiny creatures and trying to understand how their world works. That curiosity pushed me to study insects, especially bees, much more deeply,” said Zhangerey.

The idea for Beelieve started at home. All three members are from Taraz in Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl region, a place where beekeeping is highly developed, prevalent, and important for local agriculture. With more than 200 apiaries in the area, they grew up around the industry and have always been honey lovers.

As the team describes it, “The idea to create Beelieve came from a mix of where we grew up, our interest in science and technology, and our love for nature. Since these things were so important to us, we were pushed to build a system that combined all three of them.”

After the team came up with the idea, they interviewed local beekeepers and ran surveys to identify the key problems: “We found that the common issues were parasite outbreaks, pesticide exposure, unpredictable swarming, and sudden drops in temperature and humidity. An average apiary has more than 100 hives, and beekeepers need to check each one manually several times a week. Our beekeepers also tend to be older, so remote hive management reduces their workload and enables better results.”

What Is Beelieve, and How Does It Work?

“Beelieve is a smart hive system with an AI assistant,” explains Zhangerey. “It helps beekeepers monitor their hives remotely, using a small module that fits inside any standard hive and collects data on temperature, humidity, weight, and bee activity through IoT technology.”

“This data is sent to a receiver and analyzed by the AI system, which detects changes in the colony’s behavior and overall condition. The beekeeper gets alerts and recommendations, such as when to inspect the hive, collect honey, or improve ventilation.”

Beelieve works fully autonomously, runs on a solar panel, and can monitor several dozen hives at once, without the need for an internet connection. And what makes it truly innovative is the combination of features that usually don’t appear in a single system. The AI predicts swarming, colony collapse, and parasite risks based on real-time behavioral data of the colony.

Amirkhan explained further, “The module fits inside any traditional hive, so beekeepers don’t need to replace their equipment, which makes advanced monitoring more affordable and adoptable. However, one of the biggest challenges we faced was connectivity, as most apiaries are located in remote areas with no internet access at all. We had to drop Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modules early in the project for this reason, and we switched to LoRa[1], which is low-power and can transmit data over long distances.”

Solve for Tomorrow Success Quickly Leads to More Impact and Recognition

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow was, and still is, one of the most well-known and respected national competitions for students working on real projects,” said Adilet. “We applied twice before with other ideas but didn’t even make it to the semifinals, so when we learned that we made the top 30, we were genuinely excited. For us, it was a chance to present the project on a more serious level and get feedback from experts across different tech fields.”

Solve for Tomorrow had a big impact on Beelieve in two key ways. First, their mentoring session with David Tuganov helped them look at the project through the lens of design thinking and improve its effectiveness: “Thanks to David’s input, we redesigned our devices, updated our pitch deck, and introduced a new subscription-based business model for monitoring entire apiaries. We also came up with another business hypothesis, offering smart hives and devices as a rental service for orchards. This would help orchards improve pollination by monitoring the hives automatically and sending automatic alerts.”

Second, they gained a strong network, meeting talented participants and like-minded people they still keep in touch with: “Seeing the level of other projects pushed us to raise our own standards and spend the whole summer improving our idea so we could show our best work in the semifinals. By the time we reached the final, we received valuable feedback from the judges and even found a potential customer who owns an apiary.”

Then, later this year, the AI Sana Generative Nation competition was held for the first time as part of the Digital Bridge forum, under the initiative of the president of Kazakhstan. In the final round, five projects competed in the student category, and Beelieve took first place, winning a prize of 5 million tenge (approximately $9,800). After that, they participated in the plenary session and the official opening of alem.ai, Kazakhstan’s International Artificial Intelligence Center, alongside the president, as well as well-known figures in tech and venture capital like Pavel Durov, Peter Norvig, Ilya Strebulaev, and Kai-Fu Lee.

Beelieve’s Vision for the Future

The team is resolute in their mission, commenting, “In the long run, sustainability starts with keeping pollinators alive. Bees support biodiversity, food security, and agriculture, so protecting them means protecting the entire system around us. Beelieve can reduce colony losses, increase honey yield and improve pollination efficiency for farms. And we even have the potential to start producing premium honey under our own brand.”

It’s a solution that extends AI and IoT into a traditional sector, boosting modernization and accessibility while engaging more young people in the beekeeping space. In this sense, it is contributing to the development of youth innovation and the broader tech ecosystem in Kazakhstan.

As the team proudly points out, their vision is already starting to take shape: “This fall, we established a partnership with Bal-Ara, the National Beekeeping Union. With their support, we will present our project at the national beekeepers’ congress in spring, and we are working to introduce it across Kazakhstan in the upcoming season.”

Their Message to Other Young Innovators

Beelieve’s message to other young innovators is simple, familiar, and resonant: “Focus on ideas that genuinely interest you and feel close to your heart. When that part is right, the whole process becomes easier. You work with more enthusiasm, and the project almost grows by itself.”

“This experience has shown us that we can build real products, not just ideas. It helped us see entrepreneurship and startups as a real career path, and it made us realize how meaningful it is to create something that makes a difference in the real world. It also made us less afraid to aim higher. We learned that real innovation comes from understanding the problem deeply and listening to the people who face it every day. Because of that, we’re now even more interested in creating solutions that sit at the intersection of tech, sustainability, and business.”

About Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a global competition that empowers students to address real-world challenges in their communities through STEM. By fostering creativity and critical thinking, the program encourages students to innovate and develop impactful solutions to local and global issues.

Through hands-on projects, participants gain the skills and confidence to tackle complex problems, transforming their ideas into actionable solutions. The program nurtures the next generation of leaders while strengthening the global community by connecting young minds across borders to share knowledge and inspire collective progress.

To learn more, visit https://csr.samsung.com/en/program/samsung-solve-for-tomorrow

[1] LoRa (short for “long range”) is a wireless radio communication technique based on spread spectrum modulation.