Bangladesh secured three gold medals at the first-ever Asia-Pacific Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (APOAI), the highest number won by any participating country at the regional competition.
The contest brought together 129 students from 18 countries, including China, Russia, Singapore, Japan and Iran. Of the 10 gold medals awarded, three were won by members of the Bangladeshi team.
The gold medallists were Labib Shahriar, a Grade 10 student at Homna Adarsha High School, Md. Shaidozzaman Araf, a Grade 11 student at Moulvibazar Government College, and Tridib Roy Arjo, a Grade 11 student at Notre Dame College. They finished fourth, fifth and ninth respectively in the final rankings.
Four other members of the eight-member Bangladeshi team received honourable mentions: Nawfeel Rahman of Darus Salam Government Secondary School, Nairrah Nawar Ahmed of Ideal School and College, Motijheel, Anonyo Zarif Akand of Munnu International School and College, and Mobtasim Chowdhury Priom of Notre Dame College. Murtaza Abdullah of National Ideal School also represented Bangladesh in the competition.
The six-hour online competition was held on June 13. Bangladesh’s participants competed from the Institute of Information Technology (IIT) at the University of Dhaka under live video supervision and screen recording, following the event’s international assessment protocol. Contestants used the “Bohrium” platform to solve four machine learning challenges covering different application areas.
According to Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) who organised the national programme leading to the competition, the Bangladeshi team was selected through a multi-stage process that began with local qualifying rounds in April, followed by a national round held on May 16 at the Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT). The final team was chosen after a national selection camp organised between May 20 and 23.