The Bangladeshi team that grabbed awards at Open World Astronomy Olympiad 2022
Team Bangladesh from the Bangladesh Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (BDOAA) won 1 silver and 5 bronze medals in the 1st Open World Astronomy Olympiad (2022), a prestigious international astronomy olympiad held in Saransk, Russia, from September 26 to October 2, 2022. The competition aimed to support astronomical education and talented schoolchildren and strengthen international academic ties.
This year, the silver medal winner of the competition was Hritom Sarker Oyon (Adamjee Cantonment Public School) from Bangladesh. There were also five bronze medal winners from Bangladesh as well: Imdadullah Raji (Notre Dame College), Ahnaf Anwar Nafi (Chattogram College), Radh Chowdhury (Dhaka Residential Model College), Faiyaz Siddiquee (DPS STS School) and Md Faijul Kabir Jishan (Ananda Mohan College). The team leaders of this event were Fahim Rajit Hossain, Md Mahmudunnobe and Md Arman Hassan along with one observer Turja Roy.
Fahim Rajit Hossain, Team Leader of the OWAO Bangladesh Team, shared the details of their rigorous process of selecting and training the team. Each year, the BDOAA team hosts an annual BDOAA in Bangladesh, from which the top-ranking individuals are chosen for the national camp. After that, the team was selected for the International Olympiad of Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) in multiple phases.
The silver medal winner competitor, Hritom Sarker Oyon, shared his love for data analysis and theoretical problem-solving. Regarding his placement in this international competition, he said, "Representing your nation on the world stage to bring glory is no less than a dream come true." Oyon regularly practises problem solving at home and with his team members. This passion to solve problems pushed him higher.
This year, the OWAO team was chosen from numerous tests among individuals who made it to the final phase of the national camp. The winning team members share a love to solve problems as well as a profound interest in critical thinking. All of that together, according to the team, made them interested in taking part in the olympiads of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Previously, the selected team in the IOAA has won bronze medals and honourable mentions at previous iterations of the competition. The national team exclusively competed at the IOAA because that was the only major competition. Starting this year, the OWAO is being hosted to accommodate more participation at the International level. Many national teams participated this year, including but not limited to Russia, China, Belarus, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Moldova.
Radh Chowdhury, a bronze medal-winning team member, had a thrilling experience at the event. For him, the most exciting round was the observation round. He said, "Seeing various sky maps and finding the patterns of constellations and from that star's position, missing or added stars, was really fun." He further noted that his future plan is to keep on studying astronomy and astrophysics, and hopefully win a medal attending IOAA 2023 for Bangladesh.
The competition was held in four rounds: theoretical, practical, observational, and express test. These rounds are designed to examine the competitors regarding astronomical theoretical knowledge, problem-solving, data analysis, and more. In the theoretical round, the team was given eight theoretical questions to be solved in 5 hours. Upon solving them, the contestants were to submit the scanned answers on the official OWAO portal. There was an additional 30 minutes to do this.
In practice rounds, the team was given large data sets for processing analysis within a limited time frame that they had to upload to the portal again. Because the competition was held in person, teams were given photos to share observations on instead of using a telescope. Finally, in the express test round, contestants were given many short questions that needed to be answered quickly. Typically, these are a string of minor questions that need to be answered efficiently.
This year the Olympiad was held remotely and the exams were supervised via video surveillance. This competition was organised by The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, The Government of the Republic of Mordovia, Ogarev Mordovia State University, Mira Educational Center and Former Russian Team Leaders at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA).
Despite the international-level achievement, the team shared that they face many structural challenges, mainly owing to astronomy and astrophysics not being widely supported in the country. However, regardless of such obstacles, the team has higher hopes to bring future glory to the nation and are working hard towards it.