Bangladesh bags two gold medals

The Bangladeshi contingent at the 22nd International Robot Olympiad (IRO) has won two gold, two silver and five bronze medals, along with six more technical awards.

Robo Sparkers team's Misbah Uddin Inan, student of Chattogram Cantonment Public College, and Zaima Jahin Wara of William Carey Academy won a gold medal in the creative category.

RoboTigers team's Nasheetat Zainah Rahman, student of Sunbeams, and Quazi Mostahid Labib of Chittagong Grammar School-Dhaka secured the other gold medal, in the "Robot in Movie" category.

For the pandemic, the IRO competition was held online this year and controlled from Daegu, South Korea.

A 19-member Bangladeshi team participated in the IRO from BCS Innovation Centre in Dhaka on December 12 and 13, according to Bangladesh Robot Olympiad (BDRO).

"Bangladesh has been participating in the IRO for three years. Each year, our performance has surpassed the previous year's" Lafifa Jamal, president of Bangladesh Robot Olympiad Committee, told The Daily Star yesterday.

In 2018, Bangladesh participated in the IRO for the first time and won a gold, a technical medal and two highly acclaimed medals. In 2019, the Bangladesh team won a gold, two silver, six bronze and one technical medal.

"Our students are doing great in various international competitions. If we can keep it up, it is possible to do something bigger in the future," she added.

With this win, Bangladesh has won the gold medal in the junior group's creative category at the IRO for three consecutive years.

Earlier, the 3rd Bangladesh Robot Olympiad was organised by the ICT Division; Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering of Dhaka University; and Bangladesh Open Source Network, in collaboration with Bangladesh Computer Council.

In the national phase, 731 students from 62 districts of the country participated in the competition.

An international robot team selection camp was organised with from the winners of the national event.