Australia Awards South and West Asia

Australia Awards scholar Joytu Khisha from Bangladesh is studying a Master of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide with the support of an Australia Awards Scholarship. Recently, Joytu also received a scholarship from the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) to undertake a research project on ‘Enabling Robotic Mimicry of Human Arm and Hand Movements’. The story of how he has overcome many obstacles to pursue a lifelong dream is an inspiring one.

From a young age, Joytu was captivated by robots that resemble humans. Watching movies like A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Star Wars, Wall-E, and I, Robot fuelled his dream of working on humanoid robots one day. He was particularly fascinated by robots like ASIMO by Honda and the robots from companies like Boston Dynamics.

After graduating high school, Joytu enrolled in a computer science degree at North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. However, his passion for working with humanoid robots required a greater knowledge of hardware, electronics, mechanics and software than the degree could provide. This led him to join the university’s Computer and Engineering Club, where he became the head of research and development, and began working on simple robots.

In Joytu’s home country of Bangladesh, there are only a few companies working in robotics, let alone humanoid robots. For the final project of his bachelor’s degree, Joytu’s friends and seniors advised him to choose a project with broad prospects locally, such as creating an e-commerce website, which could potentially lead to a job in an existing e-commerce company.

“But I was a dreamer,” Joytu says. “I wanted to create a robot.”

With a limited budget, creating an entire humanoid robot seemed far too unrealistic for him at the time. Instead, he decided to start with a small robot—”similar to Wall-E!”, Jyotu says. Under the supervision of Dr Hasan Uz Zaman, Joytu and his team created a robot made out of wood, using motors from old broken cars—because they couldn’t afford new ones.

The wooden robot created by Joytu and his team.

Despite this impressive achievement, Joytu’s belief in the potential of humanoid robots was continually tested during this period. None of his friends shared his optimism that the technology could be useful in the near future, and even one of his IT lecturers—a highly qualified industry expert—disparaged Joytu’s beloved ASIMO. The field of humanoid robots also suffered setbacks: Boston Dynamics, which was bought by Google in 2013, was sold again in 2017. But the biggest blow came in July 2018, when Honda discontinued their 32-year-long ASIMO project, into which they had invested billions. “I was devastated,” Joytu says. He began to question his dream.

However, he had not quite given up. With his skills, he could have pursued a career in software and app development. Instead, he opted to work in industrial automation. Industrial robots were already in use at that time, and Joytu retained a glimmer of hope that one day he might find a path back to his dream of working on a humanoid robot.

It was Joytu’s older brother, Jyoti, who led him to that path. Joytu describes Jyoti, an Australia Awards alumnus, as “an excellent adviser and an optimistic, positive person”. Jyoti suggested that Joytu apply for an Australia Awards Scholarship too, to pursue higher education from a reputed university. This put him back on the right trajectory.

Although Joytu still yearned to build an entire humanoid robot, he knew it was too ambitious to apply for the Scholarship with such a proposal. Instead, his application proposed creating an AI-based robotic arm to assist people with physical disabilities. With AI being a rapidly growing field, he sought a university that offered a course in this area. The University of Adelaide, with its links with AIML, was his first choice.

Having received his Australia Awards Scholarship, Joytu began his master’s degree in Australia in 2023. While studying, he would frequently pass the AIML building. He wanted to get involved in the work being done there—but despite being just outside the door, his dream seemed as distant as ever.

Joytu outside the Australian Institute for Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide.

Then Joytu found out about the AIML scholarship opportunity and promptly applied. Being selected for the scholarship seemed like a reward for persevering through many obstacles. Dr Feras Dayoub’s research on robotics at AIML immediately attracted his attention. Joytu discovered not only that Dr Dayoub was working on humanoid robots, but that Joytu would be working on something similar. “I could not hold back my tears,” Joytu says, thinking back to the moment he received the news.

Joytu’s AIML project focuses on making a robot mimic human arm movement, using computer input from a camera. The project will take about seven months in total and Joytu is hoping to achieve something extraordinary by the end of this year. The spark that was first nurtured by working with Dr Hasan Uz Zaman in Bangladesh is now flourishing with the support of Dr Feras Dayoub. “I consider myself really lucky to have such an amazing supervisor,” Joytu says. He is thankful to the Australian Government for helping him make his childhood dream a reality, and hopes that one day he will become a torchbearer passing along the passion for robotics to future generations.

Watch Joytu’s story below.