IUB tops from Bangladesh in US robotics contest

IUB team 'Team Attendant' in University Rover Challenge (URC) 2017

Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), secured the first position among all Bangladeshi participating universities, in the 2017 round of University Rover Challenge (URC) held in Utah of the United States recently.  

The University Rover Challenge (URC) is the world's premier robotics competition held annually in the desert of southern Utah in US. URC challenges student teams to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will someday work alongside astronauts exploring the Red Planet.

A record number of 82 teams from 13 countries took part in URC 2017. Following a rigorous two-stage down-select process, 36 teams were invited to the field competition at MDRS. 35 teams from seven countries arrived with their rovers ready for the exciting challenges in the Utah desert, USA. Subsequently, the teams of the more than 1000 students were involved in URC projects at their local universities during the 2016-17 academic year.
 
After three days of intense competition under the hot desert sun, the Mars Rover Design Team (MRDT) from the Missouri University of Science and Technology became the first team from the United States to win the University Rover Challenge (URC). 

Częstochowa University of Technology from Poland won the second place while Brigham Young University (BYU) from the United States earned the third position.

However, besides ensuring first among all the Bangladeshi universities, the ‘Team Attendant’ of IUB became second in whole Asia and tenth globally.