UIU Mars Rover Team tops Asia for the fourth year and wins World’s Best Science Team at the 2025 University Rover Challenge in Utah, USA.
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| UIU secures 6th globally and 1st in Asia at the University Rover Challenge 2025, also earning the Best Science Team title for its flawless mission score. Image: UIU |
Dhaka, Bangladesh — June 2, 2025:
The Mars Rover Team from United International University (UIU) has once again made history, securing first place in Asia for the fourth consecutive year and claiming sixth place worldwide at the University Rover Challenge (URC) 2025, held from May 28 to 31 at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah, USA. The competition, organized by the Mars Society, brought together the world’s top university engineering teams to design and operate next-generation planetary rovers.
UIU’s outstanding performance was capped by a historic achievement: the team was named the World’s Best Science Team, scoring a perfect 100 out of 100 in the science mission. This marks the first time in the competition’s history that an Asian team has achieved such a flawless score in any category.
This year, 38 teams from 15 countries — including the United States, Poland, India, Bangladesh, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, and Turkiye — qualified for the final round. The competition evaluated each rover across four critical tasks: science exploration, autonomous navigation, extreme terrain traversal, and equipment servicing. UIU’s rover successfully completed all missions, demonstrating technological excellence, interdisciplinary teamwork, and operational precision.
Supervised by Md. Abid Hossain, a lecturer in UIU’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the team was composed of ten students from the UIU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR). The student project was led by Md. Mushfiqur Rahman of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, with sub-teams overseeing management, mechanical engineering, electronics, software development, communications, and scientific research.
In the final standings, the Mars Rover Design Team from Missouri University of Science and Technology claimed first place with 412.27 points, followed by teams from West Virginia University, Northeastern University, Brigham Young University, and Rzeszów University of Technology. UIU secured sixth place with a total score of 325.93, maintaining its position as Asia’s top-ranked team for the fourth consecutive year, after earlier wins in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Bangladesh’s presence at URC 2025 was notable, with three other teams advancing to the final round. BRAC University’s BRACU Mongol-Tori ranked eighth, MIST’s Mongol Barota finished fourteenth, and IUT’s Project Altair placed eighteenth, underscoring the rising strength of Bangladeshi universities in robotics and innovation.
This continued success by UIU not only reflects the university’s commitment to excellence in technology and research but also positions Bangladesh as an emerging leader in global science and engineering education. The victory is a proud testament to how student-led innovation, combined with strong academic mentorship, can achieve world-class results on an international stage.