Bangladesh Breaks Barriers in NASA Space Apps Challenge 2025
The Bangladesh round of the world’s largest hackathon, NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025, concluded virtually after an intense 36-hour session, marking a record-breaking year with five times more participants than the previous edition. However, the results will be announced on October 6 in the evening.
The two-day online hackathon, held from Friday morning on October 3 to October 4, saw over 3,000 participants competing in 278 teams from nine cities across the country. Guided by mentors, the teams presented more than 400 innovative projects. Young innovators showcased their ideas across 19 categories—covering 18 official themes along with an additional open category.
A remarkable 203 projects were submitted from outside Dhaka this year, setting a new benchmark for regional participation. Due to the large volume of submissions, the number of judges was increased to 40. The evaluation process was also fully digitized this year, replacing traditional paper-based assessments, said Mohammad Mahdi-Uz-Zaman, advisor of NASA Space Apps Challenge Bangladesh.
He further noted, “This year, AI was used more than ever before in the project development process. After evaluation, the results will be announced globally on October 6 at 6 p.m.”
As in previous years, the Bangladesh edition of the competition was organized under the patronage of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and the American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), with support from the BASIS Students’ Forum.
Over the past 11 years, Bangladesh has achieved global championship titles four times, including three consecutive victories in the NASA Space Apps Challenge.
Notably, in 2018, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology’s Team Olik became world champion in the “Best Use of Data” category with their Lunar VR Project, a virtual reality application that simulated lunar travel. In 2021, Team Mohakash—a joint team from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) and Bangladesh Army University of Engineering and Technology (BAUET)—won the “Best Mission Concept” category. The following year, Team Diamonds earned the world title in the “Most Inspirational” category. In 2023, Bangladesh’s Team Voyagers became world champion in the “Best Storytelling” category.
