For the first time, two projects prepared by Bangladeshi teams have been named at the top four in two separate categories of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s international challenge.
A total of 2,729 projects from 79 countries competed at the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2018 in the USA.
From the 2,729 projects, 'Team Olik' and 'Team Planet Kit' of Bangladesh have made it to the top four in the 'Best Use of Data' and the 'Best Use of Hardware' categories, said BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir.
He said NASA announced the results in their official website on Saturday.
This is a great achievement for Bangladesh, Almas Kabir said.
BASIS is working in the process of building Digital Bangladesh and the achievement is one of the milestones in the journey, he informed.
Last year, two Bangladesh projects secured places in the Top 10 of People's Choice Award, he mentioned.
But for the first time, the Bangladeshi projects have secured places in the main challenge categories, according to the NASA website.
In Best Use of Data Category 'Team Olik' from Sylhet secured its place in the top-4 along with the teams from California, Kuala Lumpur and Yamaguchi, Japan.
Earlier, Team Olik became Champion from Sylhet division in this year's National Hack-a-Thon in Bangladesh.
Team Olik has made a VR application. Using this application the user can experience the NASA lunar landing site in virtual reality.
This Lunar VR project intends to provide experience in virtual reality. It is portable and educative at the same time.
On the other hand, Team Planet Kit from Dhaka secured spot in the Top-4 along with three other teams from Rosario, Argentina, Perth, Australia and Taipei.
The Team Planet Kit secured runner-up position from Dhaka in the national Hack-a-Thon of NASA Space Apps 2018.
Team Planet Kit has prepared a device that has necessary equipment to carry out several lab tests which are crucial to detect bio-signatures in planet Mars.
It will also help determine if the condition of weather and soil there are fit for survival of lives and detect existence of water.
Those data will help determine if foods can be produced in Mars.
This year from 19-20 October top 40 teams participated in 36 hours long Hack-a-Thon at Independent University, Bangladesh.
Out of them, eight were nominated for NASA Space Apps Challenge.
Among those two have made it to the Top-4.
