MIST’s Mongol Barota secures runners-up trophy at Anatolian Rover Challenge 2024

Mongol Barota, the Mars rover team from the Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), has secured the runners-up trophy at the Anatolian Rover Challenge (ARC) 2024, and the champion title in the ARC Junior 2024 Exploration Challenge.
ARC’24 took place from July 17 to 21 at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkiye, under the patronage of the Space Exploration Society (UKET).
MIST’s Mongol Barota, consisting of 38 students across several engineering departments of MIST, took on this year’s ARC challenge with their latest rover, Maverick. Six of them represented the team in Turkiye. The team was led by Md Jawadur Rahman from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE), with Alamin Rashid Tarek from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) as the co-leader. Other members of the team included Lt Md Sarower Morshed (CSE), Istiaque Ahmed Arik (CSE), Raisul Islam Rahad (CSE), and Ahmed Ahnaf Saqafi (ME). The team was guided by their faculty advisors Lt Col Muhammad Nazrul Islam (CSE), Maj Md Shawkat Ali (CSE), and Lecturer Shah Md Ahasan Siddique (ME).
The ARC Junior 2024 team, on the other hand, was led by Lecturer Ahasan with Alamin and Saqafi. Brig Gen Mohammad Sajjad Hossain, Head of the CSE department at MIST supported the team throughout the journey as the main advisor. The team members also expressed their gratitude to Brig Gen Md Anisur Rahman, Head of the ME Department for providing valuable mechanical facilities. MIST’s Commandant also inspired the team to perform their best at the competition.
Mongol Barota faced fierce competition from 21 other teams from countries like Poland, India, and Turkiye amongst others. The competition required teams to complete four demanding missions set in environments simulating the environmental conditions in Mars, the moon, and the Earth.
The competition had four missions: Science Sampler, Autonomous Exploration, Lunar Robotic Prospector, and Night Launch. Mongol Barota excelled in all missions, securing 2nd, 4th, and 2nd positions in missions 1, 2, and 3 respectively. In the fourth mission, they scored a perfect 100 out of 100 and completed the task six minutes before the designated time, showcasing their rover’s exceptional nighttime navigation and task execution skills.
Despite few technical challenges, the team’s resilience paid off, earning them the second overall position with a total score of 235.18 points. The team’s stellar performance did not go unnoticed, as they also received the ARC Special Prize for the “Best Team Structure”. This award was judged by Umut Yildiz, a deep space communications engineer at NASA to whom Mongol Barota’s inclusive team culture, which involves welcoming all members regardless of age or contribution, and nurturing a healthy learning and growth environment, stood out.
On July 18, during the Night Launch mission, the team received a devastating news from Bangladesh that Shykh Ashabul Yamin, a fourth-year CSE student from MIST, had tragically lost his life during the quota reform protests. The news shook the team to its core. Rahad, the rover’s autonomy and navigation lead, said, “We felt extremely restless for not being able to communicate back home due to the nationwide internet shut down in Bangladesh back then. Despite wanting to give up, we stayed and fought back with our feelings, because we knew we had to win this for Yamin bhaiya, as well as for all the others who have embraced martyrdom [during the protests].” 
MIST’s Mongol Barota is determined to use their experience from the ARC’24 to drive technological progress and help shape the future of a new Bangladesh.
Fatima Ashraf is a campus ambassador for The Daily Star at the Military Institute of Science & Technology (MIST).