Bangladesh’s first nano-satellite BRAC Onnesha was launched in 2017 and has been taking a flag of Bangladesh into space. Brac University President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Vincent Chang has recently received this flag. It was delivered by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The flag was handed over by Professor Arshad M Chowdhury, dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Brac University, and Abdulla Hilkafi, Raihana Shams Islam Antara and Maisun Ibn Monowar, the nano-satellite project’s three engineers. The handing over took place during the inauguration of the 4th BIRDS International Workshop at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka on 25 November, 2019.
The nano-satellite was developed under The BIRDS Project, acronym for “The Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite Project”, supported by Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech).
Brac University hosted the workshop in cooperation with Kyutech, Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Aviation and Aerospace University (BSMRAAU), Bangladesh.
Professor Mohammad Tamim, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Brac University, Dr Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman of Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited, Air Vice Marshal AHM Fazlul Haque, Vice-Chancellor of BSMRAAU, Professor Mengu Cho of Kyutech and Assistant Professor Arifur Rahman Khan of the University of Texas El-Paso (USA) spoke at the inauguration.
There were 290 guests attending the event. It included 19 international delegations of the BIRDS network from Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana and Sri Lanka.
During the four-day workshop, the final competitions of the Satellite Mission Idea Contest 2019 and the National CanSat Competition Bangladesh 2019 took place. Students of Brac University won the title of the latter. A team consisting of Brac University students were runner up for the Satellite Mission Idea Contest 2019.