Team NERD, comprised of students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), has secured first place at the Automech 2025 Hackathon. The competition, held on 9 August 2025 at the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), brought together university teams to develop innovative technological solutions.
Team NERD’s winning project was an AI-powered educational platform called “Next-gen Educational Resources & Development (NERD).” The platform is designed to revolutionise programming education by offering a range of features, including collaborative code editing, personalised AI tutoring, adaptive quizzes, and productivity tools like Pomodoro timers and progress tracking. The team also presented a teaching robot capable of adjusting its lessons based on a student’s mood.
The winning team members were Tanvir Mahmud (Team Leader), Tawhid Bin Moslim, and Srobona Nubah Sabir. They developed their solution using various modern technologies, including frontend tools like React and Tailwind CSS, backend frameworks such as FastAPI, and AI models from GROQ API (Llama 3) and Google Gemini.
The IUB team was awarded for their project, which showcased the practical use of AI and IoT in education and highlighted their contributions to innovation in computer science. Their achievement aligns with Sustainable Development Goals such as SDG4 (Quality Education), SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG17 (Partnerships for the Goals).