KATHMANDU, Aug 20: A Nepali brother-sister team has won a Bronze Medal at the ITU AI and Space Computing Challenge 2026, a global competition held under the United Nations’ “AI for Good” initiative, placing seventh worldwide in the “Space Intelligence for Resilient Cities” track.
The team, Heat Sccape, comprises Jenish Budhathoki, 19, an incoming freshman at Macalester College, and his sister Jasna Budhathoki, 26, a software development engineer at Amazon and a recent graduate of Columbia University. Both are alumni of Rato Bangala School in Lalitpur.
The competition received more than 100 submissions from professional and graduate-level teams around the world. Heat Sccape’s project used satellite imagery to measure land surface temperatures at the neighborhood level and identify urban areas most vulnerable to extreme heat.
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The team combined physics-based modelling with machine learning and achieved a bias rating of 99.15 out of 100 on the competition’s final leaderboard.
Jenish led the team through both rounds, from the initial proposal to the final submission, completing the project shortly after graduating from high school and before starting college at Macalester. During his gap year, he gained research experience working with climate datasets at Duke University.
Jasna led the coding component, developing the machine-learning model used to refine the team’s temperature predictions.
“I had already spent a lot of time working with climate data at Duke, so when I came across this challenge, I knew exactly what kind of problem I wanted to solve,” Jenish said. “Leading a team was intimidating at first, but once we had a clear plan, it became more about doing the work. I learned as much from this project as I have from any class.”
Jasna said the project involved “a lot of late nights” alongside her work but was especially rewarding because she got to build something with her brother and watch him lead the project.
The team was recognised at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva and received a cash award. Jenish will begin his first semester at Macalester College this fall.
