News
Nurturing Young Researchers: The RI@B Story
December 9, 2025
Background
RI@B or Research Initiative at Bangladesh was formed from a group of USA-based highly skilled technical professionals at the advice of Raqibul Mostafa, Professor at EEE dept. at UIU. The core objective was to nurture students after the completion of BSc program in research arena to prepare them adequately for graduate programs abroad. RI@B commenced their activities in 2020 by financially sponsoring a research project under Professor Mostafa with Mushran and Farhana, two fresh EEE-UIU graduates, as RA. By mid-2020, Dr. Ehsan joined as an additional mentor. The program began to bear fruit with the first journal publication after over a year of its inception. Mushran and Farhana matured in research and subsequently moved to Canada and USA, respectively for their graduate programs. They continued with the RI@B program. Sumon, a fresh graduate from EEE, UIU joined the team in 2023. With continued financial support from RI@B for three years along with their technical advice and regular project review, the research initiative and nurturing program successfully concluded its mission with three journal and one conference publications. With fulfilment of its mission, RI@B signed a MoU with IAR of UIU to continue research sponsorship. The valuable lesson learned from this pilot project is that Bangladeshi expatriate professionals, pursuing their career abroad, can contribute significantly to the development of the nation through nurturing young researchers and enabling them to pursue a successful academic program abroad.
Project Outcome
The RI@B project unfolded in two phases, each deepening our commitment to sustainability and innovation.
Phase 1 (2020–2021) centred on the conservation of freshwater in rice irrigation. By integrating IoT and automation, the team transformed manual irrigation practices into a scalable smart system that has the potential to make irrigation more efficient, minimize waste, and support global efforts for clean water and climate action.
Phase 2 (2022–2025) expanded the project into two complementary directions. The first explored nutrition, developing data-driven approaches to create regionally adaptable, health-focused food solutions. The second tackled the challenge of resilient connectivity, designing new methods for wide-area sensor networks that adapt in real time to mobility and energy constraints. Together, these advances open possibilities for applications ranging from sustainable farming to disaster management.
Published Papers
- A Regionally Adaptable Nutrition-Centric Food Recommendation System (FR-RANC). (IEEE Access, 2025)
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3592210 - Multi-hop Mobility-based Real-Time Clustering (MHM-RTC) Algorithm for Wide-Area Sensor Networks (IEEE Access, 2025)
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3603021 - Dimensioning of Wide-Area Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) System for IoT-Based Automation (Sensors, 2021)
https://doi.org/10.3390/s21186040 - System Design for ML based Detection of Unauthorized UAV and Integration within the UTM Framework. (29th APCC 2024)
https://doi.org/10.1109/APCC62576.2024.10768055
Team Members
MUSHRAN SIDDIQUI
Interdisciplinary researcher (MSc in Environmental Economics & Management, TRU 2024; BSc in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, UIU 2017) with experience spanning smart irrigation, nutrition optimization, and adaptive sensor networks. At RI@B, I contributed from the earliest phase, publishing across fields from IoT-driven agriculture to data-informed nutrition and real-time clustering for sensor networks. This experience blended engineering, economics, and sustainability, showing me how research can move beyond theory to address real-world challenges. RI@B gave me the opportunity as a young researcher to experience how collaboration, flexibility, and communication shape impactful research.
FARHANA AKTHER
Electrical Engineer and interdisciplinary researcher (MSc in Electrical Engineering, The City College of New York, expected 2025; BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UIU 2017) with expertise in network engineering, AI-driven optimization, and data-informed health systems. At RI@B, I contributed to projects on smart irrigation, IoT-based automation, and the development of FR-RANC. My research spans AI-driven routing, traffic engineering, anomaly detection, and predictive fault management in large-scale networks, as well as interdisciplinary solutions linking engineering, computer science, and public health. RI@B has been a space of learning and growth, where I’ve seen how shared effort, adaptability, and genuine communication can turn ideas into outcomes that create real change.
MD RIDOY AD SUMON
Teaching Assistant and researcher (BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UIU 2022) with research interests in IoT and WSN, particularly the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance energy-efficient WSN clustering, optimization, and virtualization. As a young researcher with RI@B, I have worked on AI-driven edge-layer clustering and machine learning-based unauthorized UAV detection systems, expanding on earlier research in optical wireless communication and IoT-based systems. RI@B has given me the platform to grow as a young researcher, inspiring me to explore innovative technologies and deepen my understanding of intelligent and energy-aware systems.
Mentors
Dr. RAQIBUL MOSTAFA
(Professor, EEE Dept., UIU). After PhD at Virginia Tech and working in R&D at Qualcomm (San Diego), joined UIU as an avid dreamer to push forward our fresh graduates having a firm belief in their capabilities. RI@B served as a successful experiment to demonstrate that nurturing young graduates early on can propel them in the right direction with the much-needed confidence and competence in their academic programs abroad. I am greatly indebted to my research team members and RI@B to help making our shared dream come true.
Dr. GAZI M. EHSAN UR RAHMAN
Assistant Professor (on study leave) in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at United International University, Bangladesh. Since 2021, I have been mentoring the young researchers of RI@B, offering guidance in research development, technical implementation, and publication writing across IoT, WSN, and embedded systems. RI@B serves as a valuable platform that cultivates interdisciplinary collaboration and nurtures the next generation of researchers dedicated to advancing innovation and applied scientific inquiry.
Acknowledgement
This project, along with the resulting publications, was made possible from Year 2 onward through the generous support of the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR). Their commitment to advancing innovation and supporting young researchers has been invaluable.
