#thenewscompany : The Tech Academy, a prominent Bangladeshi fusion of an academy and an innovation lab, proudly participating in the 2024 FIRST Global Challenge taking place from September 26th to the 30th, in Athens, Greece. The event, themed “Feeding the Future and Robotics is a Sport,” brought together teams from around the world to showcase their innovative robotics solutions aimed at addressing global food challenges. The Tech Academy’s team demonstrated exceptional skill and creativity, contributing to the global discourse on sustainable agriculture, food security and other machine learning areas through the lens of robotics. Their involvement is not only highlighted Bangladesh’s growing expertise in robotics but also underscored the importance of technology in solving some of the world’s most pressing issues. Representing Bangladesh, The Tech Academy will be showcasing their engineering prowess and creativity, contributing to the global conversation and their participation highlighting Bangladesh’s growing role in the global tech and innovation landscape, demonstrating how robotics can be a powerful tool in addressing real-world problems.
The Tech Academy was established by Shams Jaber in 2013 who now serves as the company’s founder and CEO. The Tech Academy serves to provide Gamified Education regardinf subjects such as Animation, Robotics and Game Development. The Tech Academy has been seending students to FGC since 2017 to represent Bangladesh with Shams Jaber serving as a mentor every year. Alongside mentoring FGC Team Bangladesh, Shams Jaber is teaching Robotics to local children in Rameripa in Bandarban through his project “Computing in the Cloud Literally”.
Bhuban Mazumder, mentor of Team Bangladesh, is also part of the team at BRAC Robotics Club behind ROBU, a robot designed to help victims of the recent floods in Feni, Cumilla, Noakhali. He is taking the time to visit these flood-stricken districts while mentoring Team Bangladesh full-time.
The team also includes technical mentor Adrian Dip Mohanta, an alum of the FIRST Global Challenge, who joined the competition as a student in 2017 and has returned to the team as a mentor for 2019, 2021, 2023 and now 2024.
Abdullah Al Sharfat, Senior Executive in Finance and Operations at The Tech Academy, is an administrative mentor of the team. Alongside his administrative works he runs a notebook and merchandise business with his friends Neon, Fahad, Amina, and others known as “Sevendays Notes” and hopes to supply merchandise for other teams in Athens.
Members and Info
Team Bangladesh consists of 15 members:
1. Aariz Anas, 17 (South Point School and College)
2. Areebah Nawar Anwar, 18 (South Breeze)
3. F Zahraa Chowdhury, 18 (Sunbeams)
4. Ishmam Ahmed, 15 (Saint Joseph)
5. Ishmam Shahrooz Chowdhury, 13 (Sunnydale)
6. Mehtab Ahmed Zaman, 14 (Averroes International School)
7. Rashad Rauf Chowdhury, 18 (Sunbeams)
8. Rameen Ibn Taher, 13
9. Rownak Reza Haque, 15 (Bangladesh International School and College)
10. Sabera Zainab Chaudhury, 17 (Sunbeams)
11. Samir Hossain-Judd, 17 (Sunbeams)
12. Sarim Sharif, 12
13. Sondepon Kundu, 14 (Scholastica)
14. Syed Quafshat Taiyush Hamd, 16 (Scholastica)
15. Zahrah Sahar Anwar, 13 (Scholastica)
Achievements
In 2019, Bangladesh ranked 7th out of 191 countries. In 2020, Bangladesh ranked 1st out of 174 countries. In 2021, Bangladesh ranked 8th out of 176 countries.
Other than this, Bangladesh has won the FIRST Global Social Media Award and the FIRST Global Outstanding Mentor Award.
This year’s team includes 2 members who have been part of the winning team in 2020 and 2 members from the team that achieved 8th place in 2021. Mentors from these years are also returning.
Progress
Team Bangladesh is now testing their robot with the new REV Robotics Kit that they have received from FIRST Global. They are also making progress towards awards such as the Engineering Documentation Award, Outstanding Mentor Award and Social Media Award.
Sponsorship/Funding
Team Bangladesh is still raising funds to fly 8 members and 4 mentors to Greece. Till now they have received sponsorship from Kohinoor Chemicals, Bkash, Midland Bank, SOLShare, Apex, Central Women’s University (a concern of Kazi Farms) and donations from individuals but are still short of their goal. Happy to receive more funding.
ABOUT FIRST Global Challenge [Athens, Feeding the Future and Robotics is a Sport]
FIRST Global is a non-profit organization which has been arranging an international Olympics style high-school robotics competition every year since 2017. The organization has been inspiring youth to pursue STEM fields by making science and technology exciting, building future leaders who can collectively work to solve our planet’s most pressing problems. One of FIRST Global leading campaigns is declaring robotics as a sport. It is an initiative to make robotics an officially recognized sport in every country all around the world. This campaign has already taken effect in multiple countries, one of the recent being in Indonesia where they have taken the matter to the government and officially managed to declare robotics as a sport.
Introducing FIRST Global Challenge 2024 taking place from September 26th to the 30th, in Athens, Greece, with over 190 countries participating from all over the world, building communities, sharpening skills, and raising awareness. Each year the challenge introduces a theme for the game, relevant to a problem in the real world and this year the game focuses on the topic ‘Feeding the Future’. This year’s challenge is based on food security targeting sustainable production, disposal and consumption of food to ensure that there is enough food for everyone now and in the future to meet their basic needs.
