AI for BD Tech Carnival 2026 held at RUET

The day-long competition took place on Thursday, organised by 'Artificial Intelligence Bangladesh'.
 
Among the carnival's three segments, the robotics segment was completed on April 17. This year's event featured Scratch programming (Grades 1 to 5) and problem solving in C/Python (Grades 5 to 12).
 
More than 60 students from various educational institutions in Rajshahi participated across the two segments. Competitors had one hour to solve five programming problems.
 
Mazharul Islam Tushar, lecturer of the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department at RUET, served as a judge for the event. 

He said, "Previously, students were introduced to programming contests during university. Now they're getting familiar with programming languages and competing as early as school - which is extremely encouraging."
 
He added that none of the participants failed to solve at least one problem. He also expressed that more competitions like this should be organised.
 
Susmit Jahan, lecturer of the CSE Department at Varendra University, said, "Standing on the brink of the Fifth Industrial Revolution, AI-related technology is becoming an integral part of our lives. So learning coding from a young age is crucial." 

She noted that while her generation was introduced to IT at the intermediate level, today's students are learning Scratch programming as early as first or second grade, which is a very positive development.
 
Shahida Afrin, founder of 'Artificial Intelligence Bangladesh', stated that the organisation has been working on STEM education at the school level for the past six years.
 
While STEM education is part of the core curriculum in developed countries, in Bangladesh it is still taught as a co-curricular activity. 

She said the event was organised at RUET to familiarize students with the environment of an engineering university.
 
The closing ceremony was held at the end of the day in RUET's CSE Seminar Room. Special guests included Prof Dr. Shahiduzzaman, head of RUET's CSE Department, and a consultant from the ICT Division's EDGE Project.

Certificates were distributed to participating students at the event.
 
Organizers announced that the top winning teams from this carnival will get the opportunity to Nepal.
 
American Corner Rajshahi and the Career Guidelines and Alumni Placement Center served as organising partners for the event, reports BSS.

RUET Computing Society collaborated as the club partner.