Bangladeshi Boys Twa-Sin and Zarif Bag Bronze at GENIUS Olympiad 2025
Two young innovators from Bangladesh have made a historic debut at the prestigious GENIUS Olympiad 2025 by winning a bronze medal in the Science category. Mohammad Twa-Sin Elahi of Shaheed A.H.M. Kamruzzaman Government College, Rajshahi, and Zabir Zarif Akhtar of St. Joseph Secondary School, Dhaka, earned this honor for developing cost-effective, environmentally friendly technological solutions—one focused on rendering electronic waste non-toxic and reusable, and the other on testing water quality using artificial intelligence.
The competition took place over four days on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York. The winners were awarded their medals by GENIUS Olympiad Director Dr. Fehmi Damkaci on the afternoon of June 13 (local time). The Bangladeshi duo shared the spotlight with participants from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, India, Albania, South Korea, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Thailand, Hong Kong, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Greece.
This year, the Olympiad received 1,698 project submissions from over 70 countries and 34 U.S. states. Only 10 percent of these were selected for bronze medals, an equal number for silver, and the remainder for gold medals. Gold medals in the Science category went to participants from the United Kingdom, Canada, Azerbaijan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mozambique, China, and India. Notably, South Korea, Taiwan, and Macau also featured among the gold medalists. In other categories, South Korea, the UK, and Canada secured gold in Business, while South Korea took the top prize in Coding. Mexico, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine dominated in Robotics.
Twa-Sin and Zarif's groundbreaking project presented an affordable, sustainable, and eco-friendly method of identifying and purifying polluted water by repurposing old e-waste. Their device utilizes high-voltage plasma to neutralize harmful substances in electronic waste, integrating machine learning with hardware and software to ensure water purification.
“This achievement is not just a medal — it’s a message to every young innovator in Bangladesh that it is possible to earn a place on the global stage despite challenges,” they stated after their victory.
Twa-Sin shared that the competition was highly challenging, especially competing against strong international contenders. “We first had to write a research paper, then build the project and present it. Besides answering judges' questions, we had to prove the accuracy of our device,” he explained. With no sponsors backing them, the team bore their own expenses to attend the competition. However, once they arrived at the venue, all further costs were covered by RIT.
The awards ceremony also saw the celebration of birthdays of contestants from Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, and North Macedonia, with participants donning their national flags. Mark Manger, co-host of the event on behalf of the RIT community, welcomed the guests.
Notably, Twa-Sin Elahi had previously been a global finalist in the NASA Conrad Challenge and has won multiple gold medals in international competitions. Meanwhile, Zabir Zarif Akhtar has represented Bangladesh at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.
