BUET conquers AZeotropy 2016

The competition “Chem-E-Timer” is interesting. What you have to do seems really simple at first – heat up a certain amount of water by chemical reaction. But here’s the trick – the reactants are separated by a door; and you have to open that little door by chemical reaction itself – without touching anything. The contestants have to conduct the experiment in such a way that after one minute, the door will open as a process of the reaction, come in contact together and then heat up the water.

Out of the 60 international teams participating in the acclaimed “AZeotropy” symposium arranged by Chemical Engineering association of IIT Bombay, only two teams were able to open that door. One of them was a team from BUET. Furthermore, participating in such a prestigious international symposium for the first time from Bangladesh, BUET was declared the best institution of the whole “AZeotropy 2016” for their outstanding performance in almost all of the competitions.

The story goes quite some time back. Kazi Zihan Hossain and some of his fellow classmates from BUET Chemical Engineering Department always dreamt of an international competition focusing entirely on Chemical Engineering where they could participate, exhibit their talent and also bring glory for the country. Zihan, the team coordinator, first found out about AZeotropy and encouraged his classmates to register. But even he didn’t imagine they would excel so much on their very first attempt.

Working hard throughout the semester break in February, Zihan and his team members were preparing themselves for a competition they didn’t have much idea about. Yet, in AZeotropy 2016, organised on March 11-13, 2016, they excelled in all the three on-campus competitions and one online quiz competition they participated.

In “Chem-E-Car” competition - an internationally acknowledged competition where the challenge involves making an electrochemical cell to power a car and stopping the car in 13 meter mark using a chemical reaction - the team consisting of Kazi Zihan Hossain, Abdullah Al Masud, Nafisa Tasnim and Majed Alam Abir stood 3rd place among the initial 80 participating teams.

In “Chem-E-Timer” competition outlined at the very outset, the team of Tasneem Ahmadullah, Syed Tariq-Ul Islam Rifat, Atiqur Rahman and Tasneem Tabassum stood 2nd place of the 60 initially participating teams. In the other on-campus competition “Laminaire” that they participated in, the team of Kazi Zihan Hossain, Syed Tariq-Ul Islam Rifat, Proma Prodipti and Abdullah Al Masud stood 3rd place.

The online quiz competition had a special attraction to it. The top 40 contestants were given the chance of an industrial visit to the BSAF’s mother site in India (BASF is the largest chemical producing company in the world). Three BUETians were awarded this prestigious opportunity. Not just that, in the quiz competition, Kazi Zihan Hossain stood 4th place and Sayed Tariq-Ul Islam Rifat stood 5th place.  

“We are very proud to be able to represent Bangladesh in an overseas competition and bring success to our institution. Many Chemical Engineering students in Bangladesh think they are deprived of the opportunity to participate in overseas competitions like students from CSE or EEE can. We hope this sends a message to them that not only such competitions exist but also we can win them,” says Tarik-Ul Islam Rifat.

Zihan and the rest of his team members managed to do a simple task – when you look at it – yet not comprehended by most of us. You don’t always need the big words and the big deeds. You can excel at what you do, and that can say more than thousand big words. Doing our individual tasks sincerely and whole-heartedly, that’s the best thing we can do for our country.