Bangladesh has won two bronze medals at the World Robot Olympiad held in Turkey, marking the country’s fourth participation in the event. The winning teams, ‘Cyber Squad’ from Bir Shreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College and ‘Change Makers 2024’ from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, brought honor to Bangladesh. The members of the silver-winning Cyber Squad include Afia Humaira from Bir Shreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College, Omera Fidan from Feni Girls’ Cadet College, and Nuzhat Jahan from SOS Hermann Meiner College. The Change Makers 2024 team comprises Ragib Yasar Rahman from Dhaka Residential Model College, B M Hamim from Government Madan Mohan College, and team leader Sadia Anjum Pushpa from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.
The 21st edition of the World Robot Olympiad started on November 28 in Izmir, Turkey, with 560 teams from 87 countries participating in the competition. Bangladesh’s 12 young robotics enthusiasts competed in the Future Engineers, Future Innovators, and Robo Sports segments. Apart from the winning teams, the ‘Cyberwave’ team from Sir John Wilson School and the ‘Mayer Doa Robotics’ team from various colleges also participated.
In total, 3,150 representatives and 197 judges from 57 countries were part of the event. The Bangladesh team returned to Dhaka on December 2, after participating in the international competition. Maherul Azam Qureshi, the sub-team leader, expressed hope that this event would encourage Bangladeshi students to engage more in intellectual activities like robotics in the future. Additionally, judges for the international round included Sajjad Islam, Redwan Ferdous, and Sihaab Sara Ahmed.
Earlier, the national round of the World Robot Olympiad 2024 was held in September at Southeast University, where the winning teams were selected based on their performance. Bangladesh became a member of the World Robot Olympiad in 2020 and participated for the first time in the online competition of 2021, where they secured 10th place. In 2022, Bangladesh won a bronze medal and secured 8th place after competing in person with over 375 teams from 73 countries. In 2023, they earned 5th place among the best teams. The event in Bangladesh is organized by the Bangladesh Open Source Network.
