Team of Bangladeshi students win bronze at Genius Olympiad 2025

A team of two students from Bangladesh has won bronze in the Science category at the Genius Olympiad 2025, an international high school competition hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. The winning team comprised Zabeer Zarif Akhter, from St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, and Md Twashin Ilahi, from Shahid AHM Kamruzzaman Govt. Degree College.

The winning project, titled 'HydroPlasmaX', showcased a water purification system that uses high-voltage plasma technology sourced from electronic waste, combined with an AI-based water quality detection system. The device aims to tackle water contamination, especially from industrial sources, by eliminating microorganisms and organic pollutants.

"Our project also detects and measures water quality parameters like Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Coliform (T.C.), Faecal Coliform (F.C.), E. coli, microplastics, heavy metals, PFAS, and more, all within seconds," shared Zabeer.

The Genius Olympiad is an annual event that features student projects across science, engineering, and the arts. This year's Science category finals included 498 selected teams representing 70 countries and 34 US states. The Bangladeshi team qualified directly for the international round, as according to the team, Bangladesh currently does not have a national selection process for the competition.

Both students have competed in other science contests with notable success. Zabeer was a national champion in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in both 2024 and 2025 and has won medals at the World Innovative Science Project Olympiad 2024. Twashin has also received awards at the same Olympiad and was a finalist in the Conrad Challenge.

As bronze medalists, the students have been offered an annual $15,000 renewable scholarship at the Rochester Institute of Technology. According to the Genius Olympiad's official website, all grand, gold, silver, and bronze winners in the Science category are also eligible to submit their research to the International Journal of High School Research for peer review and potential publication.

"We're very glad to have earned this recognition for our country," the team said regarding the international competition. Zabeer stated that the achievement would inspire him to continue his scientific work, while Twashin noted its potential to benefit his academic future.