Sust team Olik finally going to Nasa on loan failing to get sponsor

A team from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust) “Olik” is finally going to Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) by taking loans, as they has failed to get a sponsor.

The team won Nasa's 2018 International Space Apps Challenge in the "Best Use of Data" category.

On Thursday evening, one of the members of the team, Kazi Mainul Islam, said: "We are going to Nasa, that's for sure."

“As we did not get a sponsor, we booked tickets for next Sunday by borrowing money from our relatives,” he said.

Mainul said that the team is still continuing to try to get sponsors. In the meantime, NRB, the Bangali Community in America is trying to cooperate with the team.

“If we get help from them then we will pay this loan later,” he said.

He also mentioned that the total travel cost of the team will be around Tk15 lakh.

Meanwhile the Bangali community in America have arranged accommodation for the Sust team. They will stay in Washington DC from Sunday to March 21.

The program will be held at Nasa headquarters in Washington on March 15 and 16.

Team Olik from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Collected

In response to the question whether they sought any cooperation from the university authorities regarding the tour, Mainul said: "We are looking for private sponsors from the beginning. That is why no cooperation was sought from the university authorities.”

In 2019, the team members were invited to visit Nasa for the first time. Even though they did not have the opportunity to go to the Nasa due to visa complications, they were invited to visit Nasa for the second time again on December 2, 2022.

On February 27, the US Embassy in Dhaka issued visas for them to go to the Nasa headquarters.

However, due to financial complications, the members of the team faced problems in booking tickets.

Olik's project was a Lunar VR that allows users to virtually explore the landing site of Apollo 11, orbit the moon with the LRO satellite, and also observe the eclipse from the lunar surface.

The team collected 3D models and information from various resources of Nasa.

They ranked in the top four, leaving behind 2729 teams selected from 79 countries of the world.

The team members are - S M Rafi Adnan from the physics department, and Kazi Mainul Islam, Abu Sadik Mehedi and Sabbir Hasan from the geography and environmental sciences department of Sust.

University Registrar Md Fazlur Rahman said that the team did not inform them of anything.