Ieee UoM SB newsletter 2013

IEEE STUDENT BRANCH
UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA
Words of Inspiration
2013
Issue 1
Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) is undoubtedly the most reputed global body for electronic and
electrical engineers all over the world. They under the vision of “Advancing technology for humanity” are undertaking
several community service projects and technical programs in order to uplift the mankind via technology amelioration.
The student branches appear to be the link that bridges the professionals in the industry and the university
undergraduates. It is with great pleasure that I mention that we too are privileged to be a part of this huge global
authority. The IEEE student branch of University of Moratuwa, since the date of its establishment has reached a
remarkable exuberance during the past few years, currently having a member density of more than 350.
The student branch together with its WIE affinity group has pioneered many recognized events during the last year
also.
IEEE Xtreme 7.0 is the one stands high upon every one of them where the undergraduates of the university proved
their excellence once more in this worldwide overnight coding challenge. It backed the 19th ERU symposium organized
by the Engineering Research Unit of university of Moratuwa, for it is the breeding ground for the innovative ideas of
the engineering masterminds.
Inauguration of the IEEE Power and Engineering society student chapter was one peculiar event that took place within
the past year. Field visits, IEEE talk sessions were some other mini projects of the student branch.
Moreover, we celebrated the IEEE Day on 1st of October and many sub events such as the CodeExpertz 1.0, the first
ever island wide coding challenge for school children, Xtravaganza took place in cohesion with that.
Personally, it is a pleasure for me to see the status the UoM student branch has currently achieved. Yet, the target is
still far. We are half past the way to it and a longer distance to travel. So, I wish the student branch good luck to
accomplish the goals successfully during the year ahead.
Thank You.
Prof. Sisil Kumarawadu
Student Branch Counselor
1

IEEE STUDENT BRANCH
2013
Issue 1
A Word from the Chairman
IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for
the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through its highly cited publications,
conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. IEEE University of Moratuwa Student
Branch is one of the most active Student Branches in the Region and was established in 2008 with Mr. Kasun
Chathuranga as the first president who was the person behind the initiation with the guidance of Prof. Sisil Kumaravadu
(B.Sc. Eng (Moratuwa), MEng (Saga), PhD (Saga)), senior lecturer from the Department of Electrical Engineering of
UoM. From the beginning many students were enthusiastic about the formation of the student branch since they
believed this will open up new avenues of world technology for the technocrats, truly it was! By now the member span
has increased up to more than 350 members. Solid foundation laid back then paved the student branch’s path towards
the success it has achieved today.
Members are the biggest asset possessed by the student branch. So, we try our best to help the members yield a
maximum number of benefits in various prospects by actively working in the student branch. The biggest benefit for
our members is that the exclusive exposure to the dynamic technological world they obtain when engaging in IEEE
student branch activities. The knowledge and the experience they gain from those are undoubtedly beyond the normal
study scope of our students, thus, they have the competitive edge from their peers.
We do have some impressive goals which we strive towards continuously. With the ultimate goal of “The IEEE
University of Moratuwa student branch strives to create an atmosphere of technology for the upcoming engineers of
the University of Moratuwa”, we always focus on benchmarking our standards with our fellow student branches. This
eventually helps us in being the best in the country.
The last year 2012/2013 was incredibly successful year for the Student Branch. There were many successful events
organized by the SB, especially some events collaborating with the section and with the participation of other student
branches as well. I take this opportunity thank everyone who helped us throughout the year and I wish all the best for
the newly appointed Execom and director board for a successful and eventful year forward.
Thank You.
Tharindu Ranasinghe
Student Branch Chairman
2

IEEE STUDENT BRANCH
Editor’s Note
2013
Issue 1
Volunteering for a world renowned professional body during
one’s undergraduate life is simply not an ordinary thing. What
you do will be paid off multiple times by the value of the
ultimate unique experience you gain through this. This is why
we, at IEEE Student Branch of University of Moratuwa, believe
that our members could be the most sought after set of young
engineering undergraduates who possess both academic
excellence and social smartness which indeed cater to the
industry expectations.
Throughout the year 2013, our student branch was capable of
organizing a wide variety of events which were of immense
importance to all the Engineering undergraduates as well as to
the University of Moratuwa. Our vibrant and versatile set of
volunteers made it possible to achieve success all the time.
Through this newsletter which is published for the first time, we
expect to give out the readers the flashback of the activities
organized by the IEEE Student Branch of University of Moratuwa
during the year 2013. We consider this would provide the
foundation and motivation to accomplish the success of future
events organized by the student branch. Also, we would like to
draw the attention towards the exemplary opportunities one
could obtain by joining our team.
Nadee Seneviratne
AT A GLANCE….
Editor
Nadee Seneviratne
Contributing Authors
Subodha Charles
Harini Hapuarachchi
Sachinthana Pathirana
Sanduni Premarathne
3
Driving Forces behind Success (Pg 4)
IEEEXtreme 7.0 (Pg 6)
19th Engineering Research Unit Symposium (Pg 9)
Annual Field Visit (Pg 10)
CodeExpertz 1.0 (Pg 11)
Xtravaganza 2013 (Pg 12)
IEEE Day 2013 (Pg 13)
IEEE Talk (Pg 14)
GO GREEN - SAVE TOMORROW (Pg 15)
“Your First Day at Work” (Pg 16)
More News on WIE (Pg 19)
Inauguration Ceremony - IEEE PES Student
Chapter, UoM (Pg 21)
FLY HIGH WITH IEEE (Pg 22)

IEEE STUDENT BRANCH
2013
Issue 1
Driving Forces behind
Success…
IEEE Student Branch of University of Moratuwa
Executive Committee 2013
Tharindu Ranasinghe
Chairman
Subodha Charles
Secretary
Hasitha Dinumpura
Vice Chairman
Kavindu Kusal
Treasurer
Director Board 2013
Vimukthi Deshappriya
Activity Director
Samitha Elvitigla
Organizing Director
Muditha Sasanka
Web Administrator
Nadee Seneviratne
Editor
Charith Kumarasinghe
Educational Director
Senior Committee Members
 Tisura Gamage
 Kelum Deshappriya
 Pasan Gunawardena
 Tharindu Madanayaka
4

IEEE STUDENT BRANCH
2013
Issue 1
Driving Forces behind
Success…
IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Student Branch Affinity Group of University
of Moratuwa
Executive Committee 2013
Udari De Alwis
Chair
Nuwanthika Rajapaksha
Secretary
Awanthika Senarath
Vice Chair
Sriyanthi Ranaweera
Treasurer
Vindya Senevirathne
Director - Organizing
Senior Committee Members
 Pramodya Senanayaka
 Harini Hapuarachchi
 Sanjeewani Jayasekara
 Ashani Muthumala
 M.A. Helani
 Sanduni Premarathne
Co-Editors
 Sachinthana Pathirana
 Chamalee Nisansala Wickrama Arachchi
5

IEEEXtreme 7.0
By Sachinthana Pathirana
“Winning is not a sometime thing;
it's an all-time thing. You don't win
once in a while, you don't do things
right once in a while, you do them
right all the time. Winning is habit.”
20th October 2013, was the day for the
winners of University of Moratuwa, where
they exhibited their habit once more to the
whole world. The dawn of the day was usual,
but for more than 240 restless hearts,
excitement reigned for it was none other
than the day for the most awaited, most
recognized theatre for the unbeaten coders
of the island, IEEEXtreme 7.0, the global
coding challenge.
For this year’s Xtreme competition, over
5400 coding experts from every nook and
corner of the world engaged their mighty
mind power to solve 23 coding challenges
over a sleepless time span of 24 hours. As
usual, the teams of IEEE Student members,
were supported by an IEEE Student Branch,
advised and proctored by an IEEE member.
Even though there was a decline in the
number of competing teams, that pitfall was
masked by the perceived talents exhibited
by the code experts of University of
Moratuwa. We are with humble pride
announce the official results of this year’s
Xtreme competition, that 6 Mora teams
ranked within the top 100 all over the world.
There is whole lot of groups and individuals
that could never be forgotten in the path
towards making this huge leap a success. The
members of the IEEE Student branch of the
University were the underlying foundation
for bringing this year’s competition alive,
under their full time dedication. The flow of
the competition within the University
premises would not have made a reality if
not for their massive cohesion.
The overnight competition was held inside 6 laboratories belonging to 2 separate
buildings.
The huge flight would never make its wings so strong unless for the immense
helping hand extended by the lecturers and other academic staff members of the
University. The sponsorship of LK domain registry obtained with the aid of Prof.
Gihan Dias who is the CEO/Registrar of the LK Domain registry gave the opportunity
to make this event more productive. The collaborative effort of a huge group of
individuals working to accomplish one mission, paved the way for bringing the title
once again to its home while glazing the golden name of University of Moratuwa.
Highlights of the Day
The start of the battle was remarkably dominated by the team of the triplet who
emerged victorious over all of the recent Xtreme challenges, ‘Meeyo’, but this time
under a new interesting title, ‘Machan’. They turned out to be the quickest team
from Sri Lanka over the first half of the total time span, being placed over 5th all
over the world. Towards the latter part of the game, unfortunately ‘Machan’
seemed to have a little fall off, but just as before in the previous Xtreme
competitions, Mora was able to have full faith on them for they still ranked to be
the top of all the teams representing the country, while being placed 12th among
all opponents throughout the world.
The commitment of the organizing team has to be praised with gratitude, for they
spent 24 continuous sleepless hours to facilitate the coders with almost everything
they required during the entire time span.
Achievements
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
So this time also Mora chased perfectionism. Ultimately, University of Moratuwa
encountered excellence. Even though the participation for this year’s Xtreme 7.0
was comparatively lower than in Xtreme 6.0, our undergraduates were able to
secure the name of excellence the university retained so far.
6 O FFICIAL NEWSLETTER 2013- IEEE STUDENT BRANCH - UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA

‘Machan’ you are the best…!!!!
There could be hardly anyone in University
of Moratuwa for whom ‘Meeyo’ is not
known. Yes, they were the team that placed
3rd in the last year’s battle. This time,
‘Meeyo’, Thilina Ambagahawaththa and
Varuna Jayasiri, accompanied by Laksith
Uchitha Sirisena, under the team name
‘Machan’, turned out to be the triplet to
become 12th over the entire world.
Thilina Ambagahawaththa currently works
as a Biomedical Research Engineer in the
University and he’s mastering in Application
Specific Processor Design for Computer
Vision. Varuna Jayasiri is the well experience
coding expert from CeylonSpiro which
placed 2nd in Xtreme 5.0 together with
It is with great pleasure we announce that as in the previous
years, during Xtreme 7.0 also University of Moratuwa was
able to exhibit the best performance over any other
institution in the country. The team ‘Machan’ who placed
12th according to the world ranking, secured their position
as the best performing team within the country itself, just in
the same way ‘Meeyo’ manifested during Xtreme 6.0. The
next to come in the performance line of Xtreme 7.0 was the
team ‘1729’ which placed 24th and SharpSharks who placed
25th. Even though a team from Mora was not qualified to
be within the best 10, we had 6 teams within the top 100
and 19 within the top 200.
Shown below is just a glimpse at the colors, the teams from
the University manifested during Xtreme 7.0.
1. Machan (12th)
Varuna Jayasiri
Thilina Ambagahawaththa
Laksith Sirisena
2. 1729 (24th)
Nipuna Samarasekara
Lajanugen Logeswaren
Tharindu Warnakula
3. SharpSharks (25th)
Krishanthan Sundararajah
Buddhima Gamlath
4. Ohjelmoijat
5. CodeSharks
6. SplendidThrice
Lilantha Polpitiya, Chethiya Abesinghe. An exceptional individual
from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Laksith Sirrisena,
joined with Thilina and Varuna in the journey of bringing Mora’s
name to the pinnacle of excellence.
Acknowledgement
IEEE Xtreme 7.0 was the splendid outcome of the enormous efforts
put forth several individuals in a collective sense. It is our utmost
duty and responsibility to extend our heartfelt gratitude towards
each and every one of them, as the IEEE Student Branch of
University of Moratuwa.
We sincerely thank Prof. Ananda Jayawardena - the Vice Chancellor,
Prof. Rahula Attalage – the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. U.G.A.
Puswewala – Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Prof. A. S.
Karunananda – Dean, Faculty of Information Technology for their
inevitable guidance and support throughout the organization of the
competition. The event would have never made a success if not for
their immense support and guidance.
Just as in the previous Xtreme competitions the stupendous hand
given to the IEEE student branch of University of Moratuwa by Prof.
Sisil Kumarawadu – IEEE student branch counsellor and Prof. Rohan
Munasinghe – Student Advisor is highly appreciated by us. Also Prof.
Gihan Dias - CEO/Registrar of the LK Domain registry inspected and
guided us through the obstacles and paved our way towards the
success, as well as providing with the financial sponsorship to the
event from LK Domain Registry.
OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER 2013- IEEE STUDENT BRANCH 7 - UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA

V
The backing support extended by the various departments of the University can never be neglected. Our sincere gratitude goes to
Dr. Chandana Gamage– Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dr. Ajith Pasquel – Head of the Department
of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Prof. M.P. Dias – Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Dr. L.
Ranathunga – Head of Department of Information Technology for providing laboratory and other facilities from their departments.
The commitment of the proctors of the IEEEXtreme 6.0 throughout the day of the competition is greatly valued. Prof. (Mrs.) Dileeka
Dias, Dr. Jayathu G. Samarawickrama, Dr. Nuwan Dayananda, Dr Ranga Rodrigo, Prof. Rohan Munasinghe, Prof. Sisil Kumarawadu,
Dr. Chandima D Pathirana, Dr. Weliwitage Don Asanka Rodrigo, Prof. Gihan Dias, Dr. R. A. R. C. Gopura, Mr. Kasun Chathuranga,
Mr. Lalintha Polpitiya, Mr. Hasala Dharmawardena, Mr. Thilak Chaminda, Mr. L. Widanagamaarachchi supported the event as
proctors observing and guiding the competitors. Any team without a proctor could not compete in the Xtreme competition. So the
role played by the proctors has to be admired with honor. Moreover, even if not specifically mentioned above we highly appreciate
the support earned from all the academic and non – academic staff members who helped us by any mean to give wings to this
dream.
The strong foundation underneath the organization of this competition was none other than the IEEE Student Branch of the
University together with the WIE Affinity Group. One may newer witness such a gentle flow in the day’s work unless if not for their
dedication. Having the well-organized flow of the vent day is the hardest part of the whole competition. We gratefully mention
their hand in bringing this alive.
IEEE Xtreme 7.0 was another step of a long journey. There are many more milestones to pass ahead. The IEEE Student Branch of
University of Moratuwa is a tree sprouting day by day. It’s still young and grows step by step with continuous fertilization. So we
are fingers are crossed for the Xtreme 8.0 and we all are looking forward to see IEEE Xtreme 8.0 popping out even more coding
experts next year.

19th Engineering
Research Unit
Symposium
By Nadee Seneviratne
One of the most remarkable events in the
University of Moratuwa calendar, the National
Engineering Conference, 19th ERU Symposium
successfully marked another important chapter
in the university history on the 26th November
2013 at the Civil Engineering Complex,
University of Moratuwa. IEEE Student Branch of
University of Moratuwa being one of the
prominent student organizations in the
university and having gained a solid experience
from organizing previous years’ ERU
Symposiums did an exceptional work in
organizing and coordinating the entire event
this time as well.
Engineering Research Unit (ERU) Symposium is
considered as a platform to disseminate the
knowledge gained through the research carried
out at the Faculty of Engineering of the
University of Moratuwa to the Scientific
Community at large, and to promote research
among Faculty members. This time it was held
under the theme of ‘Engineering Innovation
that Penetrates into People’ which indeed was
a timely important avenue from the
perspective of Sri Lanka’s overall development.
19 research papers from various Engineering
disciplines were published during this official
forum while providing a comprehensive insight
to the researches carried out by ERU of
University of Moratuwa.
Chief Guest of the 18th ERU symposium was
Prof. K.K.Y.W. Perera (Chancellor of University
of Moratuwa and the Emeritus Professor of
Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering).
The head table comprised of Prof. K.K.Y.W.
Perera, Prof. R. A. Attalage (Deputy Vice
Chancellor), Prof. George Mann, Prof. Duminda
Nishantha, Prof. S.M.A. Nanayakkara and Dr.
T.S.S. Jayawardane
Both the Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor congratulated the students
and the academic staff members whose research papers were published on
that day and emphasized on the importance and necessity of research being
done inside the university and the industry – university partnership in funding
the research projects. They also mentioned that when striving towards the
prime vision of the University, being the most globally recognized knowledge
enterprise in Asia, empowering research culture inside the university is a
must.
The three key note speeches also added so much value to the day’s
proceedings. Key note speech by Prof. Veranja Karunaratne (Science Team
Leader, Sri Lanka Institute of Nano Technology) was named “Growing
Research Culture” and secondly Prof. George Mann (Professor, Memorial
University of Newfoundland, Canada) presented his key note speech under
the topic “Autonomous Robotic Localization and Control” and finally it was
Prof. Duminda Nishantha (Director, Digital Technologies Innovation Center,
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University), the third key note speaker presented his
views on “WoW: Tapping the Webs of Wisdom, Crowd sourcing potential and
emerging business trends”.
The hard core work done behind the scene by the IEEE student branch of
University of Moratuwa should also be mentioned in order to complete the
success story of the 19th ERU Symposium. The executive committee, student
members together with the WIE members performed a splendid task in
organizing this massive event and their hard work paid off in multiple times
with the remarkable success at the end of the day. Their efforts in
coordinating and managing the day’s proceedings, arranging the venue of the
ceremony and the places of technical sessions, and all the work done prior to
the event day should be really appreciated since they helped the ERU
overlooking all the functions of the conference.
OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER 2013- IEEE STUDENT BRANCH - UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA
9

Our multitalented IEEE student members were able to handle each and every task excellently, even though some of those were
crucially important and significant to the day’s success. They proved the trust kept on them by the ERU and helped them to make
this prestigious forum highly appreciated by all the visitors that day including the University of Moratuwa academic staff
members, industry partners, IESL members and many more. It was really inspiring to see the enormous work was carefully
handled by these young undergraduates from the IEEE student branch. This laid the foundation for the next ERU Symposium of
University of Moratuwa and IEEE student branch of University of Moratuwa is eagerly waiting to be the organizing partners of
the of the next year as well.

This year we made our journey to visit a
Water treatment plant in Kandana, Horana
on the 12th of July 2013, with the
participation of about 30 members of the
student branch. This “KALU GANGA” water
supply project was started in 2008 as a
Japanese funded project.
The objective of this project was to meet the
increased demand of water and to secure the
stable water source, even during the dry
season in the Greater Colombo area (i.e. to
around 250,000 people in Colombo south
region) by constructing new water supply
system which utilize the Kalu Ganga River as
a new water source, thereby contributing to
the improvement in public health and
business environment in the target area. In
addition, a supplementary component to the
project, household water connections and
drainage facilities in the selected poor
residential areas were constructed with the
participation of beneficiary residents.
The whole process is controlled by advance
technical SCADA system which is designed by
ABB. the main purpose of the field visit is to
getting knowledge about the control system
which is highly related to fields of electronic
& computer science. And the power control
systems such as high voltage motor control
systems, PLC systems which is related to field
of electrical. It is with greatest gratitude we
recall the immense support given by the
officers to obtain the permission to visit this
place and to clearly explain the procedure of
the water treatment plant. We truly believe
that this is a wonderful opportunity for
everyone who visited the place on that day
to enhance their practical knowledge.
Field visit is simply not about education all
the time. Fun which was another important
element of our journey should be mentioned
as well. We are extremely glad that our
members were able to extract the utmost
benefit from this incredible learning
experience and we are more than happy that
this odyssey made our bond stronger than
ever.
Annual Field Visit
Each year, a field visit is organized by the IEEE Student Branch of University of
Moratuwa, for the betterment of our members and to give them the exposure to
the industry. We select a technological place and conduct a field visit with the
objective of providing our members with additional knowledge which is beyond
their scope of regular studies. It is a privilege for our members since we get the
opportunity to visit so many advanced state-of-art technological places.
11

CodeExpertz 1.0
CodeExpertz 1.0 was an online school
programming competition held exclusively for
the school children of Sri Lanka. As the prime
technological institution of Sri Lanka, we had
taken the initial step to provide a platform for
the school children to showcase their hidden
talents and improve their skills in the field of
computer programming. This was a new
avenue for the school children to get the
exposure to the real world technology matters
at a very young age which we at IEEE Student
Branch of University of Moratuwa (IEEE SB
UoM), consider as a great privilege. This was
held on the 28th of September 2013 from 9.00
am to 6.00 pm at the University premises with
the participation of more than 40 teams.
The competition was created to
• Motivate school students to be
technologically sound in solving real world
problems, especially using computer
programming
• To provide students an online
competitive environment to investigate their
talents in programming
• Give IEEE Student Members a
challenge to embrace team work - an
important skill to develop for career success
Students, who are currently studying in a
school (O/L & A/L) and students just finished
their advanced level examinations, were
eligible to take part in this competition.
Organizing this type of a novel event required
a lot of commitment, dedication and
considerable attention towards many aspects.
Student branch members were so passionate
about working on a project which involved the
development of the skills of school children,
the future of our country.
Prior to the competition, a series of workshops were conducted to provide the
awareness about programming and the competition. These workshops were held in
selected schools and institutions all over the country as well as at the University of
Moratuwa premises. These were conducted by our high calibre undergraduates
representing the technical committee of this event. All of them are members of the
IEEE Student Branch of University of Moratuwa. We were able to witness the
enthusiasm of the students towards this competition and we were more than happy
to receive encouraging feedback regarding these workshops.
The standard of the knowledge level of the competitors were truly amazing and that
made the competition more excited as the time passed. After an intense
competition, the team ‘RCCoders’ from Royal College, Colombo won the
championship while the team ‘The EE Crew’ from Nalanda College, Colombo and the
team ‘Pulverizes’ from Rahula College, Matara became the 1st and 2nd runners up
respectively. The team which won the first place comprised of following students;
Chamath Palihawadana, Roshnal Lihinikadu and Sanila Vindula Jinendrasinghe. The
award ceremony was held during the IEEE Day 2013.
This cutting-edge
competition was
praised by many
people including the
Principals, teachers
and the school
children as well. They
are eager to
participate in these
kinds of events each
year and we are
hoping to retain the
momentum till this
year’s competition. This unique experience had made most of them realized about
their hidden skills which they can improve in the future.
We were extremely glad to partnership with Dialog IdeaMart and we had Digit.lk
as the online media partner who supported us in hosting our event throughout
the entire procedure of the competition.
12

“Although we're a young company founded
in 2011, we've already been recognized
globally & nationally with 7 ICT Awards for
the revolutionary innovations we did. We
innovated the Sinhala Rendering Technology
on Android Mobile platform on 2011 which
changed the whole Mobile Industry in Sri
Lanka. Our Innovation was deployed by two
giants in Sri Lankan Telecom Industry, Dialog
& Etisalat for their subscriber base. We also
innovated the First Sinhala mobile soft-keyboard
for smart phones enabling the
Sinhalese masses to type in Sinhala on their
mobile devices.”
On the second day of Xtravaganza 2013, the
participants were taught how to get started
with Android app development and the
basics were stressed upon.
The third day was the “See Deep” session
which took the audience on a trip to the
future of android. Then Mr. Samith
Wimalana shared the success story of
GlassCube, a mobile app development
company founded by 6 undergraduates of
University of Moratuwa, including himself,
Mr. Tharindu Adhikari, Mr. Ashan Shanaka,
Mr. Anuruddha Premalal, Mr. Sachith
Jayawarna and Miss. Sacheera Fernando.
Xtravaganza 2013 was successfully
concluded be the IEEE Student Branch of
University of Moratuwa with brighter hopes
of organizing many such events of meaning
in the future.
Xtravaganza 2013
By Harini Hapuarachchi
Xtravaganza 2013 was organized for the 2nd consecutive time by the IEEE Student
Branch of University of Moratuwa with the intention of inspiring the young
professionals to conquer technology. It comprised of android programming
workshops and inspiration sessions held on 30th September, 2nd and 3rd October
at the Civil Engineering auditorium of University of Moratuwa which were
intended to motivate the mobile application developers in the university. The
founder CEO of Bhasha Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Mr. Dhanika Perera graced the occasion
as the chief guest. Members of the IEEE student branch of University of Colombo
School of Computing were also present at this occasion.
On the first day of Xtravaganza, Mr. Dhanika Perera shared the success story of
Bhasha Lanka (Pvt) Ltd which for sure drove the undergraduates in the audience
to understand their potential in this path where they can think big, start small and
act now to open the doors to a world of opportunities. To quote some of his
words:
“Bhasha Lanka (Pvt) Ltd was founded by me in 2011 as a
virtual company with no physical office. The story of
Bhasha begins when I was in the University. I developed
a Sinhala/Tamil supported mobile web browser for my
university 3rd year project, innovating a new technology
to render complex scripts on mobile screens. It was
awarded the mBillionth South Asian award and due to
that the demand was coming from the industry Telcos.
They wanted to launch it as a product for their
subscribers & that’s where I decided to found a startup
to do the deal. Actually, that award was the turning
point.”
13

IEEE Day 2013
1st of October in every year is not a regular day
in the IEEE calendar. It is because all the IEEE
members in every nook and corner of the
world celebrate the IEEE Day on 1stOctober,
every year.
We, as the IEEE Student Branch of University of
Moratuwa remarkably celebrated the day
going according to the tradition while having
the cohesion of the members of the student
branches in other Universities also. The
Student branch had organized many
supporting events concordant to this.
The celebrations were made splendid by the
distinguished guests of the UoM student
branch including Prof. Sisil Kumarawadu, Prof.
Gihan Dias, Dr. Ranga Rodrigo and of course
from other University student branches. The
ideas put forth by them added much more
value for the whole event. They looked back
into why such a special day was announced
and emphasized the underlying idea of
declaring an IEEE Day.
After an ice breaking session conducted by
Subodha Charles, the day was officially
declared celebrated by cutting the IEEE Day
cake by Professor Kumarawadu. The Q and A
session organized by the student branch not
only made the event more informative but also
it was effective in stimulating the relish of the
day.
Then was the dawn of the climax event of the
day, which was the distribution of appreciation
awards to the top rankers of IEEE Xtreme 6.0
which held on October 2012.Undoubtedly this
appreciation turned out to be a great
motivation for each and every competitor for
Xtreme 7.0.
CodeExpertz is the first ever programming
competition organized aiming the coding
masterminds in Sri Lankan schools. Year 2013
marked to be a golden year for the student
branch of University of Moratuwa that we
launched CodeExpertz 1.0 this October and it
was able to hunt many coding experts within
the school crowd.
Appreciation of the achievers of this competition was another sub event that was
carried out in parallel to the IEEE day celebrations. The student groups who ranked 1st,
2nd and 3rd were awarded with smashing prices that is uplifted their self-confidence
immensely.
The IEEE student branch of University of Moratuwa would not have achieved this much
of success within this short period of time unless for the plenary support and wordless
dedication of each and every member of the student branch. The day became the most
suitable venue to put a premium on their efforts. So the recognition letters were given
away for the members of the branch who emerged to be the supporting pillars
throughout the past year.
Then came the most exquisite moment of the whole event. The IEEE Day this time was
not just a day to celebrate the international IEEE Day but it had the kick start to Xtreme
7.0 which had been scheduled to be held on October 20th.
In cohesion with this wasthe basic introductory session which was carried out by
Professor Gihan Dias, CEO/Registrar of the LK Domain registry. There he took on a
glimpse at the IEEEXtreme history, the importance of this competition, the recognition
one can gain through this competition and so on.
There onwards was like a practice session for this year’s Xtreme competition. The
members of the team SharpSharks, BuddhimaGamlath, Pasindu Rumal Perera and
Kirshanthan Sundararajah, who ranked 32nd in Xtreme 6.0 took over a couple of hours
to take on few algorithm examples that are frequently encountered in Xtreme
competitions. This session incremented the logical power of almost all the participants
at the event, not only of those who were to participate in this year’s Xtreme
competition.
Each of the minute event ultimately made out an efficacious and remarkable IEEE Day
2013 for all the IEEE student branches, especially the UoM branch who hosted it this
time. Finally, the Day concluded leaving out high hopes for spectacular victories for the
University of Moratuwa, during this year’s overnight coding challenge, IEEEXtreme 7.0.

Furthermore he advised the students
regarding the importance of joining societies
like IEEE, networking with people and
keeping updated with the world’s newest
technologies. Also he encouraged the
students to publish their researches to IEEE
conferences.
In the last minutes of the lecture he talked
about the importance of working in Sri Lanka
and the duty of serving the motherland that
gave us free education, mentioning that he
also intends to move back to Sri Lanka in a
few years’ time.
 Transforming Your Research Projects
into Industrial Implementations –
Mr. Kosala Jayasundara (Director,
Hitech solutions Pvt. Ltd)
The second “IEEE Talk” session was
conducted by a former research assistant
and a lecturer of the Department of
Electronic and Telecommunication
Engineering who’s currently the director of
Hitech Solutions Pvt Ltd, Mr. Kosala
Jayasundara. The main focus of this session
was how to transform our research projects
into industrial implementations whereas
they are required. Mr. Jayasundara explained
the scenario referring to his own experience
on taking research projects to the industry.
He also talked about the key aspects
regarding project management such as
supplier chain management, meeting project
deadline, reliability concerns and selecting
correct systems.
IEEE Talk
By Sanduni Premarathne
“IEEE Talk” is a visiting lecture series organized with the intention of giving the
student branch members an insight to their respective fields of specialization and
their relevant industries. Experienced and distinguished personnel from the fields
of electronic, electrical and computer science engineering conducted these
sessions.
Almost all of the undergraduates have no clear picture about the industry and
how to cooperate and collaborate with people from the industry until they step
out for industrial training. Through IEEE Talk it’s expected that such
undergraduates will acquire knowledge and tips on how to market themselves in
the industry. Moreover this lecture series will help them gain knowledge about
the latest technologies, advancements and trends in the fields of their interest.
Up to now the IEEE Student branch of University of Moratuwa has organized two
of the lecture series with the collaboration and funding of IEEE Sri Lanka section.
 Stepping into the world of beyond the university – Dr. Prashan
Premaratne (University of Wollongong)
This was the very first IEEE Talk session which was held on 18th of July 2013 at the
University premises. The speaker for the day, Dr. Prashan shared some of his
projects done at the University of Wollongong - a hand recognition system and
an event organized in the University named “In2Uni” for high school students.
Moreover he talked about the challenges a newly graduate will face when moving
into higher education or work, how to overcome them and when to start higher
education. His personal idea was to have 2 – 3 year job experience before moving
into masters/PHD.
15

GO GREEN - SAVE
TOMORROW
By Subodha Charles
“I stand in a cluttered room
surrounded by the debris of
electrical enthusiasm: wire
peelings, snippets of copper,
yellow connectors, insulated pliers.
For me these are the tools of
freedom. I have just installed a
dozen solar panels on my roof, and
they work. A meter shows that
1,285 watts of power are blasting
straight from the sun into my
system, charging my batteries,
cooling my refrigerator, humming
through my computer, liberating
my life”.
Michael Parfit wrote his own experience
with Solar power in the National Geographic
magazine. In 2004, NAT GEO reported that
oil, no longer cheap, may soon decline.
Instability where most oil is found, from the
Persian Gulf to Nigeria to Venezuela, makes
this lifeline fragile. Natural gas can be hard
to transport and is prone to shortages. We
won't run out of coal anytime soon, or the
largely untapped deposits of tar sands and
oil shale. But it's clear that the carbon
dioxide spewed by coal and other fossil fuels
is warming the planet.
Over the years, the situation has become
much worse. Conservation of energy and
shifting to renewable energy sources has
been a major concern in the industry and
also among researchers. In Sri Lanka,
government as well as private energy
solutions providers have taken a serious look
into the available opportunities.
With the same vision in mind, the IEEE Sri Lanka Section with the collaboration of
Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association (SLEMA) and supported by the IEEE
University of Moratuwa Student Branch, organized a workshop on Conservation of
Energy - "GO GREEN - SAVE TOMORROW”.
It was hosted by University of Moratuwa student branch and a number of
participants from University of Peradeniya, UCSC, University of Ruhuna and SLIIT
took part in the event. A set of distinguished personnel including Mr. Harsha
Wickramasinghe – the Deputy Director General of Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy
Authority, Dr. Thilak Siyambalapitiya from SLEMA shared their knowledge with the
participants. The full day workshop was funded by IEEE Sri Lanka section. It gave
the participants an insight about the newest trends in the energy sector and
guidance for those who are willing to join the field.

“Your First Day at
Work”
Having understood the timely importance of
strengthening and optimizing the potentials
and capabilities of women engineers to cope
up with the rapidly developing technological
world, the WIE Affinity Group of the IEEE
Student Branch of University of Moratuwa,
introduced the novel event, “Your first day at
work”, the Business Etiquette and Personal
Development Workshop to their calendar,
starting from this year for the very first time.
Unlike in the days few decades back, today
the contribution of the women engineers to
the cooperate world has taken up a
significant development. But still, in order to
compete tit for tat with gents in a field like
engineering, where traditionally the
gentlemen owe the prominence, they need
to have a sound knowledge on Business
Etiquette and Personal Development before
stepping into the industry. It was with the
above intention the WIE AG introduced this
one day workshop on Business Etiquette and
Personal Development, targeting the
women engineering undergraduates of the
University of Moratuwa. Since it was the first
time in the university to organize such an
event, the value added was immense.
The event took place on 29th June, 2013,
from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm at the Department
of electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering, University of Moratuwa.
The Resource person for this event was Mr.
Niroshan Silva, Director General Manager -
United Group and the Managing Director -
Training Consortium (Pvt) Ltd. He is a well
renowned consultant trainer with over a
decade of experience sees himself as a
‘people person’ within the vast tapestry of
business and society.
He enjoys and thrives upon his involvement with numerous groups of people with
diverse backgrounds and schools of thought. He has developed many training
courses and programs for well over 143 companies both locally and internationally.
The morning session was totally allocated for the workshop by Mr. De Silva and
following were the aspects covered at “Your First Day at Work”.
• Profile one self and understand the areas of development. Tool – Belbin
Profiling
• Understand Temperament and how we make others feel – Tool – TC
• Working with diverse Generations and complications for women at work
• Absolute must for business etiquette –introduction to telephone to lift to
e-mail
• Body Language that makes the difference
• Looking after one self and the way one looks
• Dressing for success to suit the vicinity, yet elegantly. Practical issues &
Solutions
• Managing office politics and Gender biases
• Industry expectations of ‘women Engineers’
• Soft Skills of Communication
Even though the ladies showed a little reluctance in making the workshop an
interactive session at the beginning, with the gradual development of their
confidence and faith towards the trainer, they actively participated in it towards
the middle part of the workshop. This clearly revealed that once they are driven
with the correct guidance, they too have the potential to work in correlation with
the gentlemen, thus proving that the targets of the workshop were achieved to a
great extent.

The latter part of the evening session added
more value to the workshop. It was a panel
discussion where the young ladies met the
two giant women personals, Mrs Gayathri
Chakravarthy – Director Human Resources,
Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka and Mrs.
Shanaaz Preena – Director Human
Resources, MAS Intimates. They shared their
real life experiences they had throughout
their carrier while working in the co-operate
world, being ladies. There is no doubt that it
turned out to be once in a life time chance
for all the women engineering
undergraduates present there.
It was a great pleasure that we were able to
achieve the intended target of the workshop.
We were successful to influence our female
engineering undergraduates to become
"women with personality" to enter the
industry after graduation, to give the female
engineering undergraduates an
understanding about the industry
expectations from a fresh undergraduate, to
build up the confidence in female
undergraduates to compete in the male
dominated engineering field with
confidence, to build up the interpersonal
relationships and team working abilities and
improve the soft skills, and to give an
understanding about the business etiquette
and personal grooming to the female
engineering undergraduates.
The feedbacks given by the participants
revealed their enthusiasm on programs like
these, specially focused on the female
engineers in molding their characters
enabling them to get on with the rapidly
moving industrial world. They feel the
necessity of conducting more related
workshops within the university premises
since they are headed towards industry
during the six month industrial training
course.
The morning session was basically to pull out the real character hidden inside
each one with the aid of Belbin Profiling. First half of the evening session was on
business etiquettes, dressing and body language and so on. When getting
exposed to the industrial culture these minor things turn out to be really
influencive in building your identity before others.

More News on WIE
Her Story – Mentoring Session
The first mentoring session of a continuous
mentoring program -‘Her Story’ was held on
28th March 2013. This program was designed
to create a platform where Lady Engineers
from the industry representing different
engineering disciplines and Lady Lecturers
from the Academia visit the University to
exchange their life experiences with the
undergraduates. The resource person of the
first session was Dr. Lidula Nilakshi
Widanagama Arachchige, Senior Lecturer
from the Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Moratuwa.
This mentoring program was one of the ice-breaking
sessions especially for the first and
second year female undergraduates. Most of
the young students believe if they want to
excel in their academic carrier they should
isolate themselves from extracurricular
activities. In our mentoring session we tried
to break through this misconception. The
speaker herself was a multitalented person
who has excelled not only in academic work.
She was engaged in numerous
extracurricular activities in her university
days. The experiences which she has shared
with the students have widened their
thoughts.
This inspirational and motivational session
was an interactive session where the
students got the opportunity to have
‘friendly talks’ with the resource person In
this session the true experiences of the
resource person were shared with the
students in order to inspire them to reach
their fullest height in there carrier life as well
as personal life. More than 50 female
undergraduates were participated in the
event.
Other Events
IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity group undertook the organizing of the technical
session conducted by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Sri Lanka Section
Chapter on the 24th October 2013. This was held at the University of Moratuwa
premises. Many valuable topics were discussed under the names of “Relative
Localization in Robotics”, “Arial Robotics”, “Mobile Robot Localization and
Mapping” by Prof. G.K.I. Mann (Department of Mechanical Engineering), Prof.
Rohan Munasinghe (Department of Electronic and Telecommunication) and Dr.
Chandima Pathirana (Department of Mechanical Engineering) respectively.

Our members also participated and
supported the IEEE Sri Lanka Section
Student/GOLD/WIE Congress 2013
which was held at the University of
Colombo, School of Computing
premises on the 1st of December
2013.
Apart from those, we are proud to be
the co-sponsors of the following
events;
 19th Engineering Research
Unit Symposium
 IEEE Day 2013
 Xtravaganza
 CodeExpertz 1.0

Inauguration
Ceremony - IEEE
PES Student
Chapter, UoM
By Subodha Charles
The last quarter of the nineteenth
century was marked by the tremendous
growth in electrical technology. Ranging
from Edison’s Pearl street station to
telegraph wires, there were numerous
firms and iconic figures engaged in the
electrical industry. This phenomenal
growth of the electrical industry led way
to the inception of the early roots of
IEEE. AIEE (American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, the original
ancestors of today’s IEEE was formed as
a result of this.
Almost five decades have passed since
the inception of IEEE. Today the institute
is the largest professional association in
the world and has expanded into a vast
number of areas. But, yet the electrical
engineers do a pioneering role in the
institute. It remains just as it was a
century ago, the premier spokesman for
the most significant and exciting
technological field of its time, developing
with time and exploring new horizons.
The Power & Energy Society (PES) with
its roots in electrical engineering,
provides the world's largest forum for
sharing the latest in technological
developments in the electric power
industry, for developing standards that
guide the development and construction
of equipment and systems.
With more than 360 related standards and 40+ conferences per year, it has
become the most sought after society chapter in IEEE for electrical engineers
all around the world.
As the mission statement of PES describes, it has really been one of the
pillars in the electrical engineering field, by being the leading provider of
scientific and engineering information on electrical power and energy for
the betterment of society. PES provides the ideal platform for professionals
as well as students in the field to make an impact to the industry.
The formation of PES society chapter in University of Moratuwa student
branch marked the first ever student chapter inside IEEE Sri Lanka section.
Since electrical engineering is one of the major specializations in the
university, it will provide the ultimate playground for all the students for
their professional and volunteer work. With Dr. Lidula Nilakshi holding the
position of PES chapter advisor and Mr. Vimukthi Deshapriya being the
founding chair, during the past three months since its kick off, UoM PES
chapter has taken a number of initiatives to go to the student community in
the university.
One of such attempts were made when the chapter organized a technical
report writing session in focus of the “Save a Watt” – Energy conservation
competition organized by the IEEE Sri Lanka section. Awareness sessions
about benefits of joining PES were conducted to attract more students in to
the community.

FLY HIGH WITH IEEE
(Student Experience at IEEE Region 10 Student/GOLD/WIE Congress)
By Subodha Charles
IEEE Region 10 Student/GOLD/WIE Congress was held on 11-14 July 2013. The event was hosted by IEEE Hyderabad Section. The
four-day congress saw delegates from all the Region 10 countries and it was a memorable experience for all of them.
3 members from University of Moratuwa took part in the congress. Pasan Pethiyagode – Regional Student Representative for
R10, Subodha Charles – Secretary of the student branch and Nuwanthika Rajapaksha – Secretary of WIE affinity group.
The congress brought 4 IEEE Presidents together, Executive committee members and most importantly, set stage for delegates
to network, to exchange experiences and to learn from each other.
During the span of 4 days, they had some pretty interesting sessions lined up. Topics like;
 Volunteering and opportunity for impact – Peter Stacker (IEEE President & CEO 2013)
 Educational Activities and IEEE HKN – Mike Lightner (IEEE President 2006)
 Reasons to be proud to be an IEEE member – Moshe Kam (IEEE President 2011)
 IEEE SIGHTS and EPICS initiatives – Moshe Kam
 Member engagement and life cycle strategy of IEEE – John Day (Staff Director, MGA)
 Leadership of student and GOLD members – Darrel Chong
….and many other important aspects were looked into. It was a huge learning curve for everyone and at the end it gave us lot of
insight about IEEE than we knew before.
Panel discussions and Q n A sessions were also conducted to give the chance to delegates to resolve all the doubts they had.
Apart from the General track, parallel
sessions were held for Student, GOLD
and WIE. All of them focused on
matters specific to their respective
fields. Knowledge was exchanged
between members so that everyone
can get something out of the others.
In the student and WIE tracks which
we took part, several matters were
discussed and solutions were
proposed which will take effect in the
coming years. Some of the identifies
problems were;
 Lack of funds
 Lack of student activities
 Lack of training for student
members
 Information flow (relevancy
of received information)

As a whole, the following facts were highlighted throughout the congress.
 Train the students with industry relevant training and also leadership training.
 Focusing on member retention: Plan to give more benefits for members.
 Awards for members within the sections to encourage volunteering.
 A newsletter to showcase the activities for each student branch and section.
 Get together with IEEE alumni. Link past members with students as mentors.
 Satisfaction surveys after events to improve quality of events.
The Gala dinner and the multicultural night were the two most popular events among delegates. Gala dinner and the award
ceremony identified exceptional performances by IEEE members and they were presented with awards of recognition.
The multicultural night showcased the culture and traditions of all the countries. Each separate country had a stole which they
used to reflect their culture and traditions. Several cultural events (Songs, Dances) were also performed.
IEEE is a lot more than just the largest professional body in the world. When among members in such an event, you always have
that warmth of a family. The smile that never leaves your face and the huge thirst to learn. True that we are volunteering, it is
also an ocean of opportunities. What more can you expect? If you are passionate about “Advancing Technology for Humanity”,
then IEEE is THE place to be. The congress reminded us this over and over again. And we wouldn’t dare to miss the chance to
attend the 2015 congress.

Journey Continues…
Thank you for being with us…

Ieee UoM SB newsletter 2013

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais procurados

Mais procurados (20)

Destaque

Destaque (20)

Semelhante a Ieee UoM SB newsletter 2013

Semelhante a Ieee UoM SB newsletter 2013 (20)

Último

Último (20)

Ieee UoM SB newsletter 2013