For the second time world champion team of the NASA Space Apps Challenge from Bangladesh ‘Team Diamonds’ participated in the NASA program at the NASA headquarters in Washington DC, USA.
The NASA Space Apps Challenge organized by NASA under the auspices of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and in collaboration with BASIS Students Forum is organized in Bangladesh every year.
At the NASA headquarters, Mamta Patel Nagaraja, NASA Associate Chief Scientist for Exploration and Applied Research – National Aeronautics and Space Administration, inaugurated the program.
The names of team members of ‘Team Diamonds’, the world champion in the category of ‘Most Inspirational’ in 2022, are: Tisha Khandokar (team leader), Injamamul Haque Sonet, Munim Ahmed, Abu Niaz and Zarin Chowdhury.
The project of ‘Team Diamonds’ is ‘Diamond in the Sky’ is an interactive learning game designed for children. Through this gaming app, kids will learn about the changes in stars (change in color, brightness, and mass), the reasons behind it. By playing the game, kids can start from creating their own stars to predicting the stars’ patterns, color changes, brightness, mass changes.
Team Diamonds team leader Tisha Khandokar said, “We were invited to participate in the NASA program on June 5-6 at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. It was basically a celebration event with the winners of different years. During the two-day program at NASA, we participated in a variety of networking and orientation discussions with NASA scientists on various aspects of working together with them in the future.”
BASIS President Russell T. Ahmed said, BASIS has been organizing the NASA Space Apps Challenge in Bangladesh for the past 10 years. Winning the title of World Champion of the NASA Apps Challenge is undoubtedly a great achievement. I congratulate all members of Team Diamonds for participating in the NASA program at the invitation of NASA. Also, I would like to thank everyone concerned, especially Tanvir Hossain Khan, Convener of NASA Space Apps Challenge Bangladesh, Ariful Hasan Opu and Mahdi-Uz-Zaman, Advisor of NASA Space Apps Challenge Bangladesh.”
However, Bangladesh’s ‘Team Voyagers’ has won the world champion in the best storytelling category of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2023. With this, Bangladesh became the world champion three times in a row and for the fourth time in total. In 2025, Team Voyagers will participate in the same program held at NASA headquarters.