Congratulations to the Bangladesh team once again on its stellar performance in the International Robot Olympiad held in Daegu, South Korea. Our bright young minds won two gold, two silver, and five bronze medals, as well as six technical awards. For three years in a row, our junior team has brought home gold medals in the creative category.
We must pay attention to what these young people do, and encourage them the best they can. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution upon us, we cannot afford to ignore new technologies that will form not only the landscape of industry and workplace, but of our everyday lives. This future, whether we like it or not, may involve hitherto unimagined AI, biotech, 3D printing, and of course, robotics.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown what an easily transmissible virus can do to the world and the global economy. Robots do not share such vulnerabilities to illness and death as humans, and so they could be used more and more in industry, in medicine, in biomedical research, and even conducting entire operations. While at first blush it may seem that Bangladesh, which has not yet managed to officially become a middle-income country, is far away from this technological frontier, the stunning achievement of our Olympiad team South Korea shows that the talent is already here. All we need is to nurture it.
This will require a change in mindset though. Clinging to old and outdated models has been our undoing. We must embrace the future, and with that, we must nurture the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs who will bring about that future. The older generation here has a crucial role to play, by encouraging social and technological change instead of standing in its way.