Muhammad Farhan Sjaugi, an experienced campaigner in federated services and eduroam technology, engaged in SIFULAN, a Malaysian Access Federation for higher educational and research institutes, recently visited Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) to share his experience with BdREN Engineers and University professionals. His visit was arranged from iFIRExMAN, a project initiated and financed under Asi@Connect.

The purpose of his visit was to impart valuable training to BdREN's engineers in setting up shibboleth IdP-as-a-service at TIGERFed – the federation developed for higher education and research community by BdREN. He was also supposed to conduct a Hackathon program for the local university engineers. The intensive four-day training, held at BdREN's well-equipped video conferencing room, concluded on June 22, 2023. 

During the training, Muhammad Farhan Sjaugi shared his expertise and experience, providing valuable insights and hands-on guidance to the BdREN team. The focus of the training was on implementing IDP-as-a-Service through installation of IdPaaS Application and associated framework. The purpose of the initiative was to stimulate the growth of TigerFed services and eduroam members. By participating in the training program, the attendees gained practical knowledge in deploying and managing IdP in cloud environment.

The training sessions were conducted in a highly interactive manner, encouraging active participation and fostering an environment of collaborative learning. BdREN's network engineers and software programmers enthusiastically engaged in discussions, asked pertinent questions, and exchanged ideas with Mr. Farhan which helped the formers to gain insight knowledge about the technology.

The training also included a “Hackathon” program which was participated by engineers from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University and BRAC University. In the program, the participants were encouraged on gathering knowledge and skills to apply in setting their IdP in BdREN cloud. 

Speaking about the training, Muhammad Farhan Sjaugi expressed his fascination at the enthusiasm and dedication demonstrated by the participants. He highlighted the importance of such knowledge-sharing initiatives in developing a vibrant and collaborative research and education environment. He also expressed his fascination with the growth and advancement of BdREN in the Asia-Pacific community as an emerging NREN.

Mohammad Tawrit, Chief Executive Officer, BdREN expressed his profound gratitude to Mr. Farhan for selecting BdREN as a pilot project under iFIRExMAN. He expressed his firm commitment that the recommendations extended by Farhan will be well-looked after and the development will be communicated accordingly. The participants expressed their highest satisfaction about gathering relevant knowledge from the training and the conducted “Hackathon” program. CEO, BdREN expressed his expectation that such collaborative initiatives should continue in the Asia-Pacific community and the initiative should function as a bridge between South-Asia and South-East-Asian community.

The four-day program ended with CEO, BdREN presenting some souvenirs to Mr. Farhan and the participants sharing their views on the training program and their future plan.