BracU alumnus becomes the first South Asian URC Judge
Soyeb Ahmed (Alumnus, BBS) has etched his name in history as the first-ever South Asian judge and staff member of the University Rover Challenge (URC), a competition where students design and build next-generation Mars rovers. After graduating in Spring 2020, Soyeb started working as a Data Analyst at BracU, driven to always give back to the community.
During his student years, he was one of the pivotal members of the Mongol-Tori team, learning high-level technical terms, robotics modules, IoT, online training, and so on. He contributed to sectors like budgeting, marketing, financing, designing, mechanical, and communication and networking. In 2019 he competed as a student in the URC, and by 2025 he returned as a judge, where the nerves had turned into excitement.
He represented both Bangladesh and BRAC globally at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), explaining that this year’s rover competition was mostly focused on image processing and AI. As a judge, he must understand the rules of evaluation criteria and evaluate rovers based on design, weight limit, size and work capabilities. Working alongside NASA scientists, he learned the key to proper execution was to document everything. This year’s champion, the Missouri Team, got the highest points due to their exceptional approach to mission planning. The student’s innovation took him back, and he reflected, “You see sci-fi and then you create sci-fi for yourself. And when you create something that moves according to you, that’s the best feeling ever”.
Seeing BracU’s Mongol-Tori and UIU’s Mars Rover Team advance from 114 teams from 11 countries to the final 36 teams from 10 countries in such a prestigious competition filled him with pride. He believes that it shows that we have truly committed to space research. To strengthen this foundation, he hopes that our curriculum will emphasize research-based, full-thesis-length, problem-solving projects to bridge the gap between academia and industry.
Lastly, he encourages students to seize BracU’s multidisciplinary opportunities, advising,
“If you are passionate about something, always go for that, even if you have to sacrifice a lot, because in the end, it will bring you results”.
