By Mariam Khan
A group of Pakistani students have won this year鈥檚 Asia-Pacific Google Solution Challenge. The winning team triumphed in the category for Best AI Use Case for their project, GeoGemma. The contest was hosted in Manila, Philippines in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Hack2skill, providing competing teams a chance to demo their projects.Here鈥檚 what you need to know about this competition and the pioneering team of innovators. The contest The Google Solution Challenge is a competition where participants work to develop new solutions to the issues highlighted by the United Nations鈥 Sustainable Development Goals. Teams are challenged to build these programmes while utilising Google technologies in some shape or form. GeoGemma, the winning project, can best be described as a geo large language model that focuses on sustainability and climate change impacts.The tool combines artificial intelligence and geospatial data to provide insights on a variety of data from surface temperatures to forest loss, for any location worldwide. The tool also features integrations of Gemini to enhance the experience further. 2025 developmentsThis year, to even land a position in the final top 10 ranks, teams were up against nearly 3,300 students, 750 teams, from a total of 12 countries. The winning GeoGemma participants were students of Islamabad鈥檚 Institute of Space Technology (IST) from the departments of computer science and space science. The students involved in the project are as follows: Ahmed Iqbal, Hanzila Bin Younas, Khalil Ur Rehman, and Abdullah Asif.In addition to team GeoGemma, another group of Pakistani students from Islamabad鈥檚 Fast National University (NUCES) also qualified as finalists and were amongst the top 10 teams. The team was called (N+1)-th Time鈥檚 the Charm and comprised the following students: Muhammad Huzaifa Khan, Hashim Muhammad Nadeem, and Ibrahim Akhtar. The Pakistani teams were the only finalists from a South Asian country, as the other teams came from countries like South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia. Apart from Pakistan鈥檚 GeoGemma, two additional winners in other categories were announced. A group from the Philippines won the People鈥檚 Choice Award while a South Korean team won the Most Societal Impact Award.Widespread appreciation The success of the students was acknowledged by the Pakistan鈥檚 ambassador to the Philippines, Dr Asima Rabbani, who invited the students to her residence during their visit. Dr Rabbani took to X to further share her sentiments stating, 鈥淧roud to host the brilliant Team GeoGemma. Congratulations to Ahmed Iqbal, Abdullah Asif & the finalist Hashim. Wishing you continued success & impact!鈥 In fact, prior to the team鈥檚 visit to Manila, the Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, met with the group to celebrate their finalist ranks. 鈥淭hese young minds are shaping Pakistan鈥檚 digital future鈥攚e stand firmly behind them,鈥 she said, as reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan. .Pakistan launches first home-made observation satellite.Why are Pakistani mangoes so popular in the UAE?