Category: Massachusetts

United International University (UIU) has been recognized as the first Regional Hub in Bangladesh for the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Hackathon 2025, an annual event aimed at developing AI-powered solutions for superior health systems. The hackathon is held annually in collaboration with the Health Systems Innovation Lab (HSIL) of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The competition, which has established over 20 regional hubs worldwide, focuses on the use of artificial intelligence to build high-value health systems.

Main theme of the 2025 hackathon is the use of artificial intelligence to build high-value health systems. The initiative has established more than 20 regional hubs around the world. Notable hubs this year include Harvard University (USA), University of Sydney (Australia), King’s College London (UK), Koc University (Turkey), Tsinghua University (China), NTU (Singapore), and UIU from Bangladesh.

Two-day competition, scheduled for April 11-12, will see participants form multidisciplinary teams to invent AI-powered healthcare solutions. The winning teams from each regional hub will participate in the global evaluation phase, with the most promising innovations included in the HSIL Venture Incubation Program.

Hackathon is open to everyone, including university students, researchers, young professionals, and emerging startups, and participants are expected to come from diverse fields such as healthcare, public health, medicine, engineering, computer science, and business. Teams of three to five members will be encouraged to develop promising new ideas rather than complete solutions.

Hackathon aims to develop promising new ideas within 48 hours, with ideas potentially including electronic health record analysis, improved diagnosis and monitoring, health support chatbots, health literacy, preventive health, artificial intelligence in pediatrics and other contemporary health innovation projects.

Brac University’s School of Architecture and Design (SoAD) proudly announces the reappointment of its Dean Fuad Hassan Mallick as a visiting faculty in Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).

In Fall 2023, Mallick led a studio course at GSD titled Permanence in Transition, focusing on the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. As part of the course, Harvard students visited the camps in October 2023, gaining firsthand insights that informed their design projects. Building on this impactful work, his Spring 2025 studio will explore informal settlements in Dhaka, addressing critical urban challenges through design and planning.

Beyond his teaching contributions, Mallick delivered a lecture at Harvard, Contemporary Architecture in Bangladesh: Sources and the Way Beyond, moderated by Professor Rahul Mehrotra. In this session, he provided valuable insights into the evolution of modern architecture in Bangladesh and its future trajectory.

SoAD, Brac University extends its heartfelt congratulations to Mallick on this distinguished recognition. His reappointment reflects his global impact in architecture and urban design and highlights the growing prominence of Bangladesh’s architectural education on the world stage.

At a seminar organized by The Center for Infrastructure Research and Services (CIRS) at North South University, speakers emphasized the need for a rethinking of the common rivers between Bangladesh and India. They suggested that Bangladesh should sign the UN Convention on International River Flows to address the problems of the two countries’ common rivers. Seminar’s theme was ‘Breaking the Ice: Dialogue on Transboundary Water Sharing between Bangladesh and India’.

Speakers recommended the creation of a team of experts to work on changes in agriculture, environment, water and people’s livelihoods in settlements along the rivers. Nazrul Islam chief economist of United Nations Development Research called on the government to sign the agreement under the UN Act on Non-Navigation of Rivers, prioritizing the natural flow of rivers.

Climate expert Monirul Quader Mirza cited various agreements on common rivers and suggested joint initiatives between the two countries on flood, water flow and resource management. Professor Sirajul Islam of the North South University department of Civil and Environmental Science and Tanveer Haroon of the board of trust also spoke.

Shafiul Islam distinguished professor at Tufts University, USA presented the main article in the seminar. He talked about planning to combine scientific and social issues to solve the problem of joint rivers. He emphasized on regular discussions between the two countries.

Assistant Professor Dr. Lamiya Ashraf Mowla from Wellesley College, USA presented groundbreaking research at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) during the 2nd Colloquium organized by the Center for Astronomy, Space Science, and Astrophysics (CASSA) on December 19, 2024. The research published in Nature magazine revealed the discovery of a 13.2-billion-year-old galaxy through images and spectra captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This marks a significant milestone for IUB as it is the first scientific paper authored by a CASSA-affiliated member, bringing added recognition to the institution.

Dr. Mowla discussed the Cosmic Calendar – explaining how studying galaxies through light offers a glimpse into the past and the importance of high-resolution telescopes like JWST in observing distant galaxies to uncover their formation processes. She also revisited her 2022 discovery of the Galaxy “Sparkler,” 9 billion light-years away which revealed “sparkles” nearby, some forming just 700 million years after the Big Bang.

Dr. Mowla also discussed the “Firefly Sparkle,” discovered as part of the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), found at just 600 million years post-Big Bang. Through Webb’s advanced instruments, she analyzed the galaxies’ spectra, identifying chemical elements and calculating redshift values, indicating their distances. The team’s analysis of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) also offered new perspectives, suggesting steeper slopes than established models.

North South University (NSU) and STEMX365 have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on space education and research. MoU was signed by North South University vice chancellor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury and STEMX365 founder Mizanul Chowdhury. STEMX365 founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) space scientist Mizanul Chowdhury is a non-profit organization that provides free space science and technology education for Bangladeshi youth through an agreement with Japan’s JAXA.

STEMX365 works in collaboration with MIT’s Zero Robotics Lab, allowing talented young people to learn programming, space, robot building and participate in international competitions. In 2021, Bangladesh won second place in the international Kibo Robotics Programming Competition under STEMX365’s supervision. MoU aims to support NSU students in space education and research.