State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak encouraged children to create co-bots and chatbots. The Minister of State advised the children of Bangladesh to focus on making robots in knowledge-based innovative works.
And in this work, the children of Bangladesh are not behind at all compared to developed countries, commented Palak. He called on the little roboticists to be ready so that Bangladesh can lead the world of robots. He also assured that he will take initiatives so that they can use BUET’s robotics lab.
The ICT State Minister conveyed the message while speaking as the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony of the 5th Bangladesh Robot Olympiad held at TSC of Dhaka University on Tuesday morning.
In his speech, Zunaid Ahmed Palak also warned about the dangers of not learning to make robots. He said, Internet of thoughts and robotics solutions are already being used in our life style. Now if we don’t learn to make robots, if we can’t innovate, if we can’t create robotics industry and innovation ecosystem in Bangladesh, then if Germany or Japan make robotics hands capable of doing everything from cutting clothes to designing and sewing, then what will be the future of our 4 million RMG workers? What will they do? That is why we want to make the ICT industry knowledge based by the year 2041. So that, we can lead the world in making and exporting robots which is the main goal of today’s Robotics Olympiad.
Palak, a Young Global Leader said to the young roboticists, to make a robot, we must first sharpen our imagination. Otherwise we cannot dream big. Because seeing in sleep is not a dream. A dream is the imagination that does not let you sleep.
He said that, even from hundreds of kilometers away, the Cyclone Sitrang has impacted this Dhaka University even. Several trees were uprooted. Maybe in the future we can use a robotic arm to lift this huge tree. Or if you put out a fire in a house or building, if you bring in the help of firefighters or a robot to engage in fire-fighting.
Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Akhtaruzzaman inaugurated the program while Director General of Information and Communication Technology Directorate Md. Mostafa Kamal presided over the event.
Hafiz Muhammad Hasan Babu, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka University; Senjuti Rahman, Chairperson of Robotics and Mechatronics Faculty; Lafifa Jamal, President, Bangladesh Robot Olympiad and Munir Hasan, General Secretary of Bangladesh Open Source Network, spoke on the occasion.
As soon as the inclement weather had passed, the parents appeared in the Dhaka University premises with their children and teenagers in the morning. After the inauguration, the Robot Gathering competition will be held in 5 categories – Creative Category, Physical Computing, Robotics Quiz, Robot in Movie and Robot Gathering for two days on October 25-26 at the Student-Teacher Center of Dhaka University.
This competition is jointly organized by Directorate of Information and Communication Technology, Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering of Dhaka University and Bangladesh Open Source Network under the initiative of Department of Information and Communication Technology in order to develop interest in robotics among school and college level students in the implementation of Smart Bangladesh by 2041.
