The UIU Mars Rover team from United International University won first place in Asia for the third time in a row at the University Rover Challenge 2024, organised by the Mars Society.
The competition was held from May 29 to June 1 at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah, USA. The 鈥楿IU Mars Rover Team鈥� stood 1st in Asia in 2022 and 2023 at the competition, said a press release.
During the three-day final, the teams performed four missions, including science exploration, autonomous navigation, extreme terrain traversal and equipment servicing missions to demonstrate the capabilities of their rover and operation skills. UIU Mars Rover successfully completed all four missions and represented the university along with the country with pride.
UIU Mars Rover team secured 5th place out of 38 finalists and first among the Asian teams in the URC 2024. 38 teams from 15 different countries, including USA, Poland, India, Bangladesh, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico and Turkiye competed in the grand final of the competition.
UIU team was supervised by professor Salekul Islam and mentored by lecturer Abid Hossain of the CSE department. A team of 10 members from the UIU Robotics Club took part in the competition. Md Yasin of CSE department led the project, while other sub-teams were led by Sakib Mahmud Saad (management Sub-Team), Bayzid Uddin Miah (mechanical Sub-Team), Shah Mehrab Hossain Fahim (electrical Sub-Team), Sheikh Shakib Hossain (software Sub-Team), Shorower Hossain (communication Sub-Team) and Suraia Afroz Maria (science Sub-Team).
This year, a number of two teams 鈥� BRACU Mangal-Tari team from BRAC University and UIU Mars Rover Team from UIU 鈥� represent Bangladesh on the international stage, participating in the final round of URC 2024.