Stellar Achievement: Team 5AM from NUST-SEECS Represents UNOOSA in the Final Round of Kibo-RPC 2025 Onboard ISS

We are thrilled to announce a landmark achievement for Pakistan in the domain of space robotics and youth innovation! Team 5AM from the Department of Software Engineering at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) has qualified for the final round aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in the prestigious 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), co-organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

The all-undergraduate team comprising Muhammad Arsalan Khan, Muhammad Athar, Mati ur Rehman, Sharjeel Sajid, Saad Umer, and Haroon Tahir, has demonstrated exceptional technical prowess and problem-solving ability by emerging as the top team among 25 UNOOSA-participating countries, which include India, Egypt, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, Jordan, Nepal, and others.

Kibo-RPC is a globally renowned programming contest where student teams write autonomous algorithms to control the JAXA Int-Ball, a free-floating camera robot inside the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) on the ISS. The challenge simulates a space mission scenario, testing navigation, obstacle avoidance, and execution of a series of tasks under real microgravity conditions. Over 738 teams representing more than 3,000 students across JAXA and UNOOSA member states participated in this year’s round.

Pakistan’s participation in Kibo-RPC has been made possible through the invaluable facilitation of SUPARCO, Pakistan’s national space agency, which serves as the official focal organization for the country under the UNOOSA Access to Space for All initiative. SUPARCO’s active mentorship, technical guidance, and coordination with international partners have played a critical role in empowering Pakistani students to compete on the global stage.

We extend heartfelt congratulations to the students from the SEECS fraternity and commend their remarkable performance in advancing Pakistani representation in international space technology platforms. This success not only showcases the emerging talent in Pakistan’s academic institutions but also strengthens our footprint in collaborative space exploration and innovation.

For more details, visit:

https://humans-in-space.jaxa.jp/en/biz-lab/news/detail/004816.html
https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/access2space4all/Kibo-RPC/kibo-rpc_6th_round.html

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