CUET hosts national case competition on air pollution solutions

The grand finale of Cascade 1.0, a national-level case competition, was held yesterday (19 July) at the IT Business Incubator Building of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET).

The event was organised and executed by the ASME CUET Student Chapter, where top student teams from across Bangladesh presented innovative solutions to combat air pollution in Dhaka.

Team It became champion following the final presentations, with Team Stamina and Team Of Steel securing the first and second runner-up positions respectively.

The winning teams shared a total prize pool of Tk75,000.

The competition began with a preliminary round that attracted numerous teams from 22 universities across the country.

After a rigorous selection process, the top 10 teams advanced to the final round.

This year's case challenge tasked participants with identifying one or more sources of air pollution in Dhaka city and designing technology-based, practical, and sustainable solutions.

The judging panel for the final round included professionals from academia and industry. Among them were Rakibul Hasan, manager of maintenance (personal products) at Unilever Bangladesh; Syeda Swayeba Anwar, assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, East Delta University; Navid Haidar, co-founder and CEO of Carbobon Inc.; Abdullah Abtahi, supply production specialist at Decathlon Bangladesh; Md Saifuddin Munna, associate professor at Premier University and senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Debate Federation; and Nahid Hasan, senior territory manager at Marico Bangladesh Ltd.

Namir Chowdhury, general secretary, ASME CUET Student Chapter, said, 'Organising Cascade 1.0 was a challenging yet highly rewarding experience. Bringing together talented teams from across the country to work on a real-world issue was a proud moment for us. We are eager to continue hosting impactful events like this in the coming years.'