Annual Report of the IESL IT & Communications Engineering Sectional Committee 2012-13

The IT & Communications Engineering Sectional Committee had another successful session in 2012/2013 period. Eng Saman Samarakoon chaired the committee during this session and following members participated regularly in committee meetings and activities.

Eng Dr Chandana Gamage – Secretary Eng Ajith Indikadulla Eng Prof Gihan Dias Eng Dr Shantha Fernando Eng Dr Chathura De Silva Eng Nalin Karunasinghe Eng Dhananjaya Rajapaksha Eng Chandana Gunasekara Eng Samantha Hittatiyage Eng Vajira Priyantha Eng Dileepa Lathsara Eng Kushan Sharma Eng Kasun Chathuranga Eng Prasad Perera Eng Samudaya Nanayakkara Eng Asanka Balasooriya Eng Nalinda Herath Eng Sampath Ranpatige

Meetings The sectional committee conducted ten regularly scheduled meetings as follows: (1) 5th December 2012 (2) 15th January 2013 (3) 11th February 2013 (4) 11th March 2013 (5) 8th April 2013 (6) 13th May 2013 (7) 10th June 2013 (8) 8th July 2013 (9) 12th August 2013 (10) 9th September 2013

The following activities were carried out by the committee.

1. Robo Games

Page 1 of 4 The flagship activity of the committee was the IESL Robo Games 2013, which was a year long sequence of activities designed to promote engineering profession among school students and introduce the IESL to undergraduate students in addition to promoting robotic technology. Eng. Nalin Karunasinghe was the sub committee chairman and competition coordinator was Mr. Amila Perera and a team of undergraduates from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of . The event coordinating team conducted the promotional activities, school robotic technology training programs, setting up of competition website, and preparation of competition arena and training arena. The team was supported by Eng Nalin Karunasinghe and Eng Dr Chathura De Silva with technical expertise. Brandix is the principal sponsor for the competition in 2013.

The competition is organized into two categories: • Undergraduate Category • School Category

To date 39 undergraduate teams and 15 school teams have registered to participate in the competition. Based on the feedback from the event coordination team, a very high percentage of the registered teams are expected to compete in the event. It is important to note that many of the higher education institutes in the country including , , University of Moratuwa, Open University of , SLIIT, KDU, , ICBT, University of Sri Jayawadenepura, IESL College of Engineering, HNDE, Wayamba University, SLIATE, and ANC are participating in the IESL Robo Games 2013.

The undergraduate event coordinating team conducted robotic technology training sessions in 12 schools in Ambalangoda (Dharmashoka College), (Mahinda College), Matara (), Weeraketiya (Rajapaksha MMV), Gampaha (Bandaranayaka College), Kurunegala (St' Anne's College), Colombo (Royal College, Nalanda College), Nuwara Eliya, Bandarawela and Jaffna (St' Jone's College). The participants were given both a lecture-based introduction robot making as well as a hand-on practical session on building robots using widely available parts such as microcontrollers and stepper motors. The participant were also briefed on the rules and procedures of the competition and were provided with advice on problems encountered by them.

Also, the undergraduate team successfully maintained the web site http://www.ieslrobogames.info/ and the Facebook page – IESLRobogames2013, which provided a very high visibility for the sectional committee and the IESL.

2. Dr Sardha Wijesoma Memorial Lecture Inaugural Dr Sardha Wijesoma memorial lecture will be held at the Engineering Faculty of the Ruhuna University in Hapugala on 7th March 2013 in collaboration with the Southern Provincial Centre of the IESL. Eng Prof Gihan Dias delivered the inaugural talk and the event was well attended by participants from Colombo, Galle and Matara. The IESL President Eng.

Page 2 of 4 Tilak De Silva also participated in this event and gave the introductory speech. From this year onwards, the memorial lecture will be an annual event in the calendar of the sectional committee.

3. Provincial Public Seminars Eng Asanka Balasooriya chaired the Provincial Public Seminars sub committee of the IT & Communications Sectional Committee and organized 5 seminars in different provincial centres of the IESL.

The inaugural provincial public seminar was held on 20th February 2013 in Ratnapura at SLT Regional Training Centre Auditorium and the topic of the presentations was "Safe use of computers." Eng Dr Chandana Gamage, Eng Dr Shantha Fernando, Eng Kasun Chathuranga and Eng Asanka Balasooriya made presentations at the seminar. The committee organized the next seminar in Jaffna conducted by Eng Prof Gihan Dias followed by one in Kurunegala conducted by Eng Dr Shantha Fernando, Eng Kasun Chathuranga and Eng Asanka Balasooriya. Eng Kasun Chathuranga presented on "Phishing attacks and web security" while Eng Asanka Balasooriya presented on "Botnets in the Internet". Thereafter, a very successful public seminar was held in Kandy with the participation of senior public officials in the hill capital. Presentations were made by Dr Shantha Fernando, Eng Kasun Chathuranga and Eng Asanka Balasooriya. The last seminar for the 2012/2013 session was organized in Anuradhapura with Eng Dr Shantha Fernando and Eng Asanka Balasooriya leading the effort.

5. Membership Drive The sectional committee conducted two successful membership drive promotions with the aim of attracting engineers in the corporate sector to join the IESL. At the event conducted at Mobitel Pvt Ltd in Colombo, organized by Eng Chandana Gunasekara with the participation of Eng Saman Samarakoon, Eng Dr Chandana Gamage and Eng Dr Shantha Fernando, nearly 20 engineers pledged to obtain membership of the IESL. At the membership drive held at the Millennium Information Technologies Pvt Ltd in Malabe, organized by Eng Sampath Ranpatige with the participation of Eng Saman Samarakoon, Eng Dr Chandana Gamage, Eng Samudaya Nanayakkara and Eng Prasad Perera, nearly 50 engineers completed the application forms to obtain the associate membership of the IESL.

6. IDEA Challenge The IDEA Challenge, which is a national level school competition to promote innovation and creativity using IT, A-Level students were provided with an online training course on the development of Mobile Applications for the popular Android platform. More than 50 teams have registered to follow the online course conducted by a team of undergraduate students under the guidance of Eng Prasad Perera, who is the sub-committee chairman for the event. Several lecture modules including video lectures were prepared for school students and a Moodle eLearning site was set up so that students can learn how to develop android mobile applications at their own pace. After completing the training program, the students are

Page 3 of 4 eligible to upload their Android Mobile Apps for the IDEA Challenge competition. The undergraduate team conducting the competition maintain the web site http://www.idea2013.info and a Facebook page – IESLIdeaChallenge providing wide ranging publicity to the sectional committee and the IESL.

Nomination for Chairman of IESL IT&C Committee for Council Session 2013/14 The committee unanimously decided to nominate Eng Saman Samarakoon to continue as the chairman for 2013/14 session with the aim of strengthening the work that was started in the current session as well as to initiate new activities benefiting the membership.

The Chairman gratefully acknowledges the work of all the committee members. He especially commended the contribution of various committees members including Eng Dr Shantha Fernando and Eng Samudaya Nanayakkara to different subcommittees of the Council including the important CPD Committee. Eng Dileepa Lathsara also contributed to many initiatives of the IESL to upgrade training establishments as well as identification of professional categories. The Chairman attributed the exceptional success of the Sectional Committee to the professionalism, dedication and volunteerism of the committee members.

Saman Samarakoon Chairman, IT & C Sectional Committee – 2012/13

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