Omar Shehab is a theoretical quantum computer scientist whose work bridges quantum algorithms, complexity theory, and programming languages for quantum computers. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2016, following undergraduate studies at Shahjalal University of Science & Technology. He has held research and teaching positions at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute, the U.S. Army Research Lab, and UMBC, where he taught theoretical computer science and quantum computing. At IonQ, Shehab focuses on developing methods to effectively harness trapped-ion quantum computers, with particular interest in hybrid quantum–classical architectures and identifying problems where quantum speedups can be realized. Currently, at IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center, Shehab is working on average-case hardness of quantum algorithms and quantum complexity theory. He has published extensively, contributed to patent applications, and delivered invited talks. His research has been funded by NASA, Department of Energy, and DARPA.
The education system of Bangladesh is not merely a ministry. It is one of the largest social systems in the world. Running such a system is not simply a policy challenge. It is an administrative challenge of almost unimaginable scale.
If unlawful killings by police are prosecuted while unlawful killings of police are ignored, the law becomes partisan. If mob killings are investigated while state killings are diluted, the law becomes cynical.
Who is the Facebook or Instagram of this era? Which AI platforms are being deployed into children’s bedrooms, classrooms and social lives without full transparency about internal research? Which companies are already measuring how certain prompts, filters or recommendation engines affect adolescent self-image, loneliness, or compulsive use?
Second chances are possible. But history does not reward clever positioning or carefully worded distance. It honors courage, sacrifice, and fidelity to truth -- especially inconvenient truth.
Governments have changed. Elections have come and gone. Political narratives have shifted -- sometimes dramatically. Yet NCTB has remained reliably unable to perform its most basic function.
That is the real horror. If one clearly innocent doctor required thirteen layers of influence to secure bail, how many other innocent people are still inside -- unseen, unheard, and unrescued?
On this day, Bangladesh did not yet know what it would become. It only knew what it had endured. The newspapers recorded surrender, denial, diplomacy, return, and rebirth. The people carried something else entirely -- a heavy, wordless knowledge of survival. That knowledge, more than any headline, is what remains.
Neither Tarique Rahman nor Sajeeb Wazed Joy can claim moral leadership without embracing financial transparency. They owe the public answers not because they are accused men, but because they are influential men. They owe the public honesty because they seek to shape the future of Bangladesh.
If our leaders want to know where this road leads, they do not need to look far. Pakistan chose the path of appeasing extremists. The consequences have been catastrophic.
At SUST, Bangladesh has chosen to forget Jahanara Imam. It has chosen to betray its mother to appease its murderers. It has chosen to sanctify cowardice with religion. The dormitory that should have carried her name now bears the name of a saint, not because the country lacks martyrs, but because it lacks the courage to honor them.
Democracy depends on two simple protections: that people can speak, and that they will not be killed for speaking. In Bangladesh, labeling someone a nastik is painting a target on his back, and should be seen for the incitement to violence that it is.
Bangladesh needs to protect itself and its intellectual property in the age of artificial intelligence. Do our leaders and decision-makers understand what is at stake?
An institution can perish through through abdication and silence while the house burns. By every meaningful measure -- the ability to reassure the public, to clarify recruitment, to protect fairness -- the PSC has ceased to function.
We are already behind, but it is not too late and it need not continue to be that way. AI can help Bangladesh take a quantum leap into the future.