Zahin Rohan Razeen, a Bangladeshi UAE resident, has recently received the “Innovators Under 35 MENA” (IU35) award.
The IU35 award from MIT Technology Review is a list of the world’s most prominent and essential innovators under the age of thirty-five. It aims to honour leading innovators with superb technical expertise, whose inventions or research promise to change the way people live for the better and make a quantum leap around the world.
A Majarra platform MIT Technology Review Arabia announced the winners of the fifth edition of the “Innovators Under 35 MENA” (IU35) award, according to a press release sent to Dhaka Tribune.
This year, there was an unprecedented number of nominees with varied innovations in technology, biotechnology, computer science, medicine, materials science etc.
Each year since 1999, MIT Technology Review announces an annual list of exceptionally talented young innovators whose work has the most significant potential to transform the world.
Previous winners include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google; Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook and Max Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal and founder of Slide.
This is the fifth year for the award in the MENA region.
Zahin Rohan Razeen is the founder and CEO of Hydroquo+ Inc, a Hydro-Informatics R&D startup dedicated to ensuring water security leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things and is the only other Bangladeshi to win the award since 2008.
He was also among the nine Bangladeshis to have made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list.
Hydroquo+ combines sensor technology and software packages to provide mission-critical intelligence expertise on the landscape of national water security. The start-up works with major national agencies across Bangladesh, notably C’WASA, D’WASA etc.
Providing AI-powered water management solutions that report on water quality, detect leakage and forecast demand based on consumption, the Dhaka-based startup was founded in 2018. They consult government agencies and NGOs on water-quality modelling.
Founder of Hydroquo+ Md Zahin Rohan Razeen said: “The goal has always been to represent Bangladesh at the highest level and this award provides us with the fuel to push forward. I want to thank my mother and family for their perpetual support and for enabling me to challenge the status quo. Having had the privilege to work with top UN principals as a UN SDG Leader over the past few years, I have a personal responsibility to continue to work at the forefront of sustainability.”
With the help of a committee of 22 distinguished and independent judges, including technical experts, entrepreneurs and academics affiliated with research centers, leading technology companies and prestigious universities globally, MIT Technology Review Arabia selected 15 innovators in total for the IU35 fifth edition.
MIT Technology Review Arabia has been organizing the MENA IU35 Award annually since 2018. It is the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) edition of the global award launched in 1999 by MIT Technology Review.
The IU35 award includes the brightest minds, technical experts, male and female researchers, scientists, and scholars.
Since its inception in 2018, 55 innovators from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, Oman, Turkey and the United States have won the award.
It is noteworthy that three of the winners of the IU35 MENA Award in 2019 won its global edition in 2020, namely Ghena Al-Hanaee (UAE), Omar Abu Dayeh (Palestine) and Mohamed Dhaouafi.
