Bangladesh phase of Robot Olympiad held

The Bangladesh phase of the World Robot Olympiad was held offline for the first time in the country. The Olympiad was held on September 24 at the Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology campus located at Tejgaon in the capital. This year the theme of the Olympiad is “My Robot My Friend”. Students from all over the country participated in this Olympiad in two categories. Out of which 6 teams participated in the “Future Engineers” category and 26 teams participated in the “Future Innovators” category. Two teams from the winners of the national round will participate in the international round of the official “World Robot Olympiad 2022” in Dortmund, Germany.  On Saturday afternoon, the prize distribution and closing ceremony of this Olympiad was held in the main auditorium of the university. The Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Muhammad Fazle Elahi, Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, BRAC University Distinguished Professor, and distinguished computer scientist Professor Dr. Mohammad Kaykobad were present as guests at the ceremony. Bangladesh Open Source Network -BdOSN General Secretary Munir Hasan, Computer Services Limited Managing Director Mamluk Sabir Ahmad, World Robot Olympiad-Bangladesh 2022 Convener Redwan Ferdous, Creative IT Institute Founder and CEO Monir Hossain, and WRO Coordinator Maherul Azam Qureshi and many others were present at that time.  On this occasion, the Vice-Chancellor hailed the courage of the new generation for the participation of the students in events like the Robot Olympiad. He also congratulated the winners of the event. Eminent academic Dr. Mohammad Kaykobad in his speech praised the role of parents in creating opportunities for students to participate in such Olympiads. He expressed optimism that Bangladesh will reach much further by relying on the talent of students.  Monir Hossain, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Creative IT Institute, said that the participation of students in such an event is important. The motivation of parents, as well as students, is very important in this regard.  In this National Olympiad, in the Future Innovators Category, the Team Robonium Bangladesh's Israfil Shaheen Aranya from Cantonment Public School and College, Rangpur and Mir Muhammad Abidul Haque from Manipur High School and College won the Gold Medal.  Team Sentinels got the silver medal in this category. Fahim Mosharraf Ratul and Ryan Haque from Mastermind English Medium School were the members of this team. Team Atlas of Sanjita Siddique from Ideal School and College; Nusrat Jahan (Sinha) from Wills Little Flower School and College and Mahjeen Jibran Prithu from Dhaka College got the bronze medal. Team Cross Arrow of Md Samiur Rahman Khan and Atiq Masood Khan from Adamjee Cantonment Public School also participated. Tiger-71 of Arefin Anwar from Dhanmondi Government Boys High School and Ragib Yasar Rahman from Dhaka Residential Model College got bronze in the junior category of the same segment. Team Cyber ​​Squad's Afia Humaira and Shabnam Khan got an honorable mention in the elementary category. Team Lazy Go bagged the bronze medal in the Senior Segment of the Future Engineers category featuring Iqbal Samin Prithul from Bangladesh University of Professionals and Abu Nafis Mohammad Noor Rohan from Notre Dame College, Dhaka. Among the contestants, Kazi Md Alamin of the RoCSo team from Brahmanbaria cited his early interest in robotics from tinkering with toy car motors as a child. Later, by doing an online campaign, he got hands-on with robotics.   Nafeesa Amin of PyPy Trinity of Girls, Comilla said she was introduced to robotics by participating in a campaign organized for students on robotics by their Deputy Commissioner's interest and initiative.  Israfil Shaheen Aranya of the Robonium Bangladesh team is currently studying in Rangpur. His interest in robotics developed while in sixth grade by participating in a workshop organized by his school. He thinks that if the kits needed for robotics were more readily available, they would be able to move forward faster. Currently, his favorite subject in robotics is machine learning. It is to be noted that in 2018 and 2019, the little roboticists of Bangladesh achieved outstanding success in the "International Robot Olympiad". In continuation of that, Bangladesh Open Source Network took the initiative to take Bangladesh one step further in various robot-centered competitions. At the end of 2019, BdOSN applied for membership in the "World Robot Olympiad", one of the most prestigious robotics competitions in the world organized with the aim of increasing the creativity and problem-solving skills of children and adolescents. On January 6, 2020, Bangladesh became a member of the World Robot Olympiad through the signing of an agreement between the “World Robot Olympiad” and “The Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN)”. Bangladesh is the 25th Asian member and 84th global member of WRO. “Bangladesh Open Source Network” as the national organizer of “World Robot Olympiad” organizes the national phase of “World Robot Olympiad-Bangladesh” every year in Bangladesh. However, this year the event was held on a different scale, this is the first time Bangladesh has organized this Olympiad offline.  World Robot Olympiad 2022 -Bangladesh national event was sponsored by “The creative IT Institute” and hosted by Bangladesh Open Source Network. In addition, "Prothom Alo" and "JRC Board" was the partners in this event. This year's event was named “Creative IT Institute Presents World Robot Olympiad-Bangladesh 2022”.