Thajid Uday Co-Founder and CEO

ANTT Robotics

Interviewed by Raiyan Rabbani, Team MBR

2019 marked the beginning of ANTT Robotics’ mission to build and accelerate the fourth industrial revolution with robotics and IoT technologies. Through the platform and the products, ANTT offers, it has built an ecosystem of learning, educating, and addressing industrial IoT problems. Research and development of new technologies, as well as new products and solutions, will continue to support the company’s growth goal in the areas of robotics consumer goods, industrial IoT products, STEAM, and creative ecosystems, all while having a positive social impact. Team MBR was in a conversation with Mr. Thajid Uday, Co-Founder and CEO, ANTT Robotics, to learn about their inspirations and vision behind ANTT Robotics.

Raiyan Rabbani: Starting in 2019, ANTT Robotics has been working in the EdTech sector, focusing on robotics, programming, IoT, and data science. It also provides IoT solutions for different industries. Would you kindly share the story behind the team and their idea?

Thajid Uday: The team is always anticipated to create a sustainable impact, especially in the area of technology enhancement for society. ANTT Robotics stands for Advanced Neural Technology for Teaching Robotics. After years of experience in embedded systems and robotics by participating in different national and international robotics, coding, and IoT conferences and competitions, ANTT co-founders decided to develop an ecosystem for awareness, learning, and expertise

on fourth industrial revolution skills such as robotics, programming, IoT, data science, etc. for society. ANTT is a HardTech pioneer and has proven products for STEM education, robotics education, IoT, and industrial IoT. That is when we decided to set up ANTT Robotics.

Raiyan Rabbani: Your products and services are innovative in nature. Could you please share the details of the products and services you offer?

Thajid Uday: At ANTT, we help our clients learn how to automate things. Using the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial IoT (IIoT), robotics, data science, block chain, and the most up-to-date technologies, we assist in learning and accelerating the industrial revolution to make our lives simpler. We teach them how to do this in an interactive and project-based way, all within our ecosystem. In short, we are an innovative ecosystem developer that includes complete IIOT toolkits and frameworks while simultaneously teaching about the usage of these tools. Furthermore, we strive to cater to the EdTech and HardTech industries by developing fun embedded system products that serve their purposes.

Raiyan Rabbani: Bangladesh is still far behind the first-world countries in terms of the adoption of the technologies ANTT Robotics is working on. What are the factors, do you think, slowing down the progress in this aspect?

Thajid Uday: I believe the primary factors are the lack of knowledge about acquiring fourth industrial skills and the lack of awareness about learning advanced skills. Most people are either unwilling to learn such new skills or are learning the wrong ones. Other factors, like the lack of resources for the use of up-to date technologies and non-import-friendly policies for small equipment, contribute to this slow progress as well.

Raiyan Rabbani: Robotics, programming, IoT, or data science— these disciplines have not been integrated into the education system; therefore, many graduates lack the required skills to work for startups such as yours. What are your suggestions regarding building a talented pool of candidates suitable for such a type of work?

Thajid Uday: At ANTT Robotics, we have been organising various research and pilot programmes in different markets globally to cater to this specific problem. Usage of our products and solutions is one of the best methods to accelerate the learning process for any individual of any age. We suggest interested individuals and institutions self-educate about industrial-level STEM applications and see what companies like ourselves are doing to help solve the problems. Once that is done, a plan can be made for curated learning alongside formal education for entering into this field.

Raiyan Rabbani: IoT will play a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 in Bangladesh. What are your views regarding the eagerness of companies in different industries to adopt IoT solutions, AI or other technologies in trend?

Thajid Uday: From our view, we have seen that many companies are trying to update and upgrade systems through IoT applications. However, fundamentally, the technologies are still in the early stages and leave end users highly vulnerable to cyber-attack. This issue is in addition to the fact that many companies do not know how IoT can be integrated within their framework and help create a modern workforce and business model that optimises their operations. Many companies, even though they are eager to enter this space, are still backwards and, in many cases, are unwilling to adopt such solutions in some cases.

Raiyan Rabbani: It is often said that there is a skill gap in the workforce when it comes to advanced technologies like the ones ANTT Robotics is working on. How is ANTT Robotics helping mitigate the issue?

Thajid Uday: All of our solutions are geared toward developing a market-ready workforce while also assisting our clients with automation. By accessing the education system and projects with industries needing automation, we are helping bridge the skills gap by designing products and tools to educate the masses. ANTT Robotics has created a one-of-a-kind teach the-teachers solution that is assisting in reaching out to more people. Users of our products and businesses have reported that by doing this, the on boarding process for many starters has become easier and faster. In addition, our users have become more confident using their hands-on skills, allowing them to become not just logical thinkers but to gain experience that can be directly used in industrial applications.

Raiyan Rabbani: R&D, beta testing, soft launching—these are very crucial for the businesses in the industry ANTT Robotics is operating in. How is ANTT Robotics making sure of these things while developing its products, since it’s hard to find a good place to do these things?

Thajid Uday: From ideation/product planning and beta testing to customers, we gather, break down, and look at quantitative and subjective information to design items that meet clients’ genuine and inactive necessities. In addition, we recognise the values we ought to offer our clients and integrate them into our business plan. Even though our development phase uses the same resources, it is impertinent to maintain and obtain the structural integrity of the developed devices for various industries. This requires various testing toolkits and industrial-grade manufacturing and testing facilities.

Raiyan Rabbani: What are the issues ANTT Robotics is trying to solve in Bangladesh, and what are the challenges the team is currently facing? What are the measures it has undertaken to resolve those challenges it faces?

Thajid Uday: Creating an innovation-based product ecosystem is difficult, particularly in industries where semiconductors are designed rather than manufactured. There is a modest degree of electrical assembly and manufacturing units across Bangladesh, and this industrial ecosystem is progressively increasing. The government is launching an Internet of Things policy, a national robotics plan, and fourth-industry job preparedness skills. As a pioneer in STEAM, IoT, and robotics product development, ANTT is working with the community to raise awareness of the fourth industrial revolution among students via a variety of activities and events. ANTT Robotics is also doing research on alternative semiconductor equipment made just for ANTT products.