Bangladesh ranks second in intl. entrepreneurial event Techkriti

Team Atlas, a team of Bangladeshi university students, emerged as the runners-up in the Technovation category at Techkriti '23, an international technical and entrepreneurial festival based in Asia. The event was held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, India from March 23 to 26.

Members of Team Atlas who represented Bangladesh in Techkriti '23 included Sunny Jubayer, Mir Tanzid Ahmed, Mahzin Gibran Prithu, Tasnim Habib, Jannatul Ferdous and Sakibul Ahsan Teham from BRAC University; Mir Sazid Hassan and Mahtab Newaz from North South University; Reza Abdullah from the University of Dhaka; and Mahbub Alam Mazumder and MD Hyder Ali from National University. 

IIT Kanpur hosts the four-day Techkriti technical and entrepreneurship event every year in March, with around 1,500 participants competing this year. According to official sources of Techkriti, this year's theme, 'Enigmatic Tessellation', was chosen to celebrate the impending virtualisation of human life.

In the Techkriti competition, teams participate in three categories - technical, entrepreneurial and miscellaneous. Team Atlas competed in the technical category's 'Technovation' segment, where they presented a multi-purpose robot capable of detecting diseases of plants, agricultural mining and can function on its own based on instructions given to it. 

"We are proud to represent Bangladesh and achieve this honour," said Sunny. He added that the team faced many challenges during the competition, but their combined pool of knowledge and skills helped them push through.

Team administrator Mir Tanzid Ahmed added, "It was an incredible experience, and we are grateful for the opportunity to compete at such a high level." He said that Team Atlas learned a lot from the competition and other international participants. "It was an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge, and we hope to use what we learned to continue innovating," said Tanzid.

Md. Saiful Islam, team advisor and senior lecturer at BRAC university said it was an inspiring journey for the team and expressed confidence that the team's work will make Bangladesh more proud in future.

Team Atlas has been participating in robotics and other technical competitions since 2016 and has a history of success. In 2022, they were gold medalists at the International Science and Invention Fair (ISIF) and the World Robotics Championship finalists. They also earned the title of Galactic Problem Solver in the NASA Space Apps Challenge both in 2021 and 2022.