The International Hope School Bangladesh in Uttara hosted the nation’s largest school-level science competition, the Inter-School STEM Fest 2025. The three-day event concluded on Saturday.

Students from more than 50 schools in the capital participated in this science competition. Apart from the competition, various innovative science projects were also exhibited, according to a press release.

The competition was organised by the Hopean Math Programming and Robotics Club of International Hope School Bangladesh while 140 science projects were exhibited in the STEM Fest with the participation of 1,600 students.

The fest started on 23 January while the first two days were organised with various competitions and the last day featured project exhibitions, cultural programmes and prize distribution.

The formalities of the competition started with the Physics Olympiad on Friday while 262 students from different schools participated in it. On the same day, there was a Programming Olympiad with the participation of 50 students and a Biochemistry Olympiad with the participation of 221 students. Students from classes 3 to 12 participated in these Olympiads in different categories.

The closing day was organised with the Mathematics Olympiad on Saturday in which students from classes 6 to 12 as well as classes 3 to 5 participated while the closing day included project exhibitions, prize distribution and a fascinating cultural programme.

This year, the judges were Professor Dr Abu Raihan, a teacher from Islamic University of Technology, Mir Abdul Baki Prince, business head of Japan Scholartech, Ahsan Habib, head of ICT Department of BIT School, Hans Ankur, head of Physics Department of Glenreach International School, Jamurat Parvin, a teacher from Manarat Dhaka International College, Dr Ishrat Jabin of North South University, and others.

Along with science competitions, discussions and exhibitions, the closing ceremony at the school auditorium featured a captivating cultural performance.

Each stall in the school grounds had various innovative projects, and the students explained the uses and potential of the projects to the visitors in detail where projects included the scale model of the Padma Bridge, the metro rail scale model, the Tesla coil, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, the particle accelerator, the microbial electricity generation plant, etc.

In her welcome speech, Principal of International Hope School Bangladesh Roksana Zarin said that the scope of STEM Fest is increasing day by day. “Not only our school, but more than 50 big schools have joined our competition this year. Students are very interested in the science festival, their science practice will take our country a long way forward.”

“Through such competitions, students are proving their skills in science and modern technology. In the last few years, many of the participants in STEM Fest have participated in an international competition called NASA Rover Challenge in America, an international competition in Dubai, which is a great achievement for us.

We are hopeful that this time too, the students participating in this competition will achieve great fame at the international level.”

The main event was organised around these four subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics while 280 students were awarded among the participants in this fourth inter-school STEM fest.

The students who secured the first, second and third places in each category received Tk5,000, Tk3,000 and Tk2,000 respectively, in addition to medals and certificates. The students who secured the fourth to tenth places in each category received medals and certificates.

The top 30 students in the competition will get the opportunity to go to America in a few days and participate in the ‘NASA Rover Challenge’ competition. This time, students will get to participate in the ‘Remote Control Rover’ and ‘Human Power Rover’ competitions in the NASA Rover Challenge.