Cinematic illustration of an autonomous underwater robot in a workshop, representing a personal series about learning robotics, teaching others, and building Bangladesh’s first competition autonomous underwater vehicle.

Completed

The Years I Built Robots

A personal series about how robotics took me from a free workshop to teaching, leadership, international competitions, and eventually software engineering.

A tidy robotics workspace with an Arduino, breadboard, sensors, wires, a small tracked robot, and a notebook illustrating the journey from learning and experimentation to building and teaching robotics.

Part 1

The Free Workshop That Started Everything

How a free workshop gave me access to robotics, introduced me to Hirok, and led me from learning Arduino to teaching others.

A friendly student-built robot with tank-style tracks waves at a university technology exhibition, with a campus, engineering projects, and travel items in the background.

Part 2

The Robot That Took Me to India

How BRAC University’s WALL-E robot took me from a Dhaka lab to Techkriti at IIT Kanpur, through a rushed visa and an unexpected journey.

Students learn hands-on robotics with Arduino boards, sensors, motors, and practice tracks during a workshop at BRAC University.

Part 3

Learning Robotics by Teaching It

How the Robotics Club of BRAC University made learning robotics affordable, practical, and fun by removing barriers for curious students.

A student moves between graphic design, event planning, club logistics, recruitment software, and robotics work inside the Robotics Club of BRAC University.

Part 4

Life Beyond the Robots at ROBU

How moving through Creative, Events, Logistics, HR, and R&D taught me how the Robotics Club of BRAC University actually worked.

Part 5

The Fear of Losing

How failures at robotics competitions in MIST and North South University made me fear losing in public, until my students pushed me back.

Part 6

One Last Local Competition

How two BRAC University robotics teams returned to DUET with custom line followers, a track-memory algorithm, and one last shot at a local competition.

Students work late at night in a rooftop satellite ground station, with a motorized antenna tracking a CubeSat above the city.

Part 7

Three Months Inside a Satellite Ground Station

Three months around BRAC University’s BRAC Onnesha satellite ground station, learning RF, helping where I could, and sleeping in the lab.

View from an airplane wing over Bhutan’s snow-covered Himalayan mountains under a clear blue sky.

Part 8

The Competition That Took Me to Bhutan

How the Regional WASH Innovation Challenge took us from a BRAC University lab to Bhutan and into a competition unlike robotics.

Cartoon illustration of ROBU members and a faculty member walking together at night in Sajek under a star-filled sky, with a Chandergari and hillside cottages in the background.

Part 9

Two Trips, Then Everything Changed

Two memorable trips with the Robotics Club of BRAC University, the people I grew close to, and the club split that changed how I saw them.

Students collaborating on robotics projects, workshops, planning, and creative work inside a busy university robotics club room.

Part 10

How I Became the Laziest Member of the Robotics Club of BRAC University

How running a university robotics club taught me to delegate, trust people, and eventually become less necessary.

Part 11

We Only Wanted to Build an RC Boat

How a failed RC boat became BRACU Duburi, what we believe to be Bangladesh's first autonomous underwater vehicle.

BRACU Duburi autonomous underwater vehicle during the Singapore AUV Challenge 2018

Part 12

We Took Our Homemade AUV From Bangladesh to Singapore

How we took BRACU Duburi, Bangladesh's first autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), to SAUVC in Singapore and improvised our way into the final.

Duburi 2 floating in a bright blue swimming pool during testing before the Singapore AUV Challenge 2019

Part 13

The Last Duburi I Built

The story of Duburi 2, my final years at university, and what happened to the robotics team as all of our lives started changing.