Bangladesh has won three bronze medals at the third International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI 2026), held in Astana, Kazakhstan, following the team’s strong showing.

The medallists are Labib Shahriar, a class 10 student at Homna Adarsha High School in Cumilla; Md Saiduzzaman Araf, a class 11 student at Moulvibazar Government College; and Mobtasim Chowdhury Priom, a class 11 student at Notre Dame College. Onno Jaryf Akond, a class 11 student at Munnu International School and College in Manikganj, was the fourth team member. The team was led by University of Dhaka Institute of Information Technology Professor Dr BM Mainul Hossain, according to a press release.

A total of 437 contestants from 107 countries participated in this year’s event in the Kazakh capital.

The Olympiad began on 2 August, with two individual machine learning competitions on 4 and 6 August. On each competition day, contestants had six hours to solve three problems.

Students from different countries also took part in team activities. The Olympiad concluded on Friday (7 August) with the announcement of the combined results at the closing ceremony.

Commenting on the achievement, Professor Dr BM Mainul Hossain said Bangladesh’s performance had steadily improved since the first edition.

“We did not win any medals at the inaugural event in Bulgaria. Last year, we won two bronze medals at the second edition in China. This year, we secured three bronze medals in Kazakhstan. Our team is improving continuously,” he said.

“I am delighted with the team’s achievement, but there is still room for further improvement. The students need to work harder, and their training opportunities and facilities must also be expanded,” he added.

Expressing his feelings about the achievement, bronze medallist Md Saiduzzaman Araf said winning a medal meant inspiring the next generation of Bangladeshi contestants to take part in the AI Olympiad.

“My main objective was to inspire those who will represent Bangladesh at the AI Olympiad after us. I hope the next generation will continue this winning streak, just as previous contestants did and as we have done,” he said.

Arefin Anwar, a bronze medallist at last year’s IOAI and one of this year’s Bangladesh team mentors, said it was the first international Olympiad for all three medallists.

“Despite this, they learnt a great deal within a short period and succeeded in winning medals. Their results met our expectations, and they deserve warm congratulations,” he said.

The Bangladesh Artificial Intelligence Olympiad began its activities in April. Regional rounds were held in May at physical venues in Dhaka, Chattogram and Rangpur, alongside three online venues for participants from Rajshahi, Khulna and other parts of the country.

The national round was held at Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT) on 16 May, and all AI Challenge competitions were conducted on Kaggle.

Following assessments at the national selection camp, held from 20 to 23 May, eight students were selected for the APOAI team and four for the IOAI national team.

The selected students then received nearly two months of online mentoring and training under the supervision of the Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN).

Dr Mohammad Azam Khan, associate professor of the CIS department at Daffodil University, served as coach of the Bangladesh team. Tasnim Mahfuz Nafis was the academic coordinator.

The Bangladesh Open Source Network organised the Bangladesh Artificial Intelligence Olympiad.

Bangladesh University of Business and Technology was the platinum sponsor and host of the national round, while REVE Chat was the powered-by partner.

Brain Station 23 was the gold sponsor, while MillionX Bangladesh and Creative IT were the silver sponsors. Bitna was the bronze sponsor, and the Institute of Information Technology at the University of Dhaka served as the knowledge partner.

Kishor Alo and BigganChinta were the magazine partners, while Deepto TV was the television partner.

The Bangladesh Science Popularisation Society, Rokomari.com and Jadu PC also supported the initiative as partners.