American International University – Bangladesh undergraduate engineering students this year put together a team of 17 members and entered the world's premier robotics competition for university students. The University Rover Challenge (URC) is held annually in the United States, and challenges student teams to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside astronauts exploring the Red Planet. In this 10^th edition of the competition, a total of 63 teams entered to fight it out for the title. Students from 12 countries had put all their hopes and dreams into the qualifying stage, but only 30 teams from 7 countries were selected for the semi-final stage. These 30 teams will travel to the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah on June 2-4, 2016.

The team from AIUB calls themselves American International University – Bangladesh Robotic Crew (ARC) and their rover is proudly named ARC-71. ARC is the first team in Bangladesh that has qualified to the semifinal stage in their very first attempt.  The team comprises 13 bright and hardworking students from the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of AIUB and four exceptionally talented stalwarts from the Computer Science Department of AIUB. The members of ARC share one common goal and that is to represent themselves, their alma mater and their nation, at the highest platform. With strong determination and work ethics, this team has grown in strength and confidence exponentially since they began their journey in January 2015. They believe that through this opportunity they will be part of something special and inspire the future generations to follow in their footsteps. More information about the team can be found at: http://aiubroboticcrew.com/