Shape Your Career- the Interactive talk held in a remarkable way

Showing the pillars of the success of the professionals in IT industry, "Shape Your Career" interactive talk organized by IEEE WIE Sri Lanka section was held on 15th May 2017 at Cake Labs in a spectacular manner. The event took place from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The hosting partner of this event was IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of UCSC with the sponsorship of Cake Labs. The event was organized with the intention of giving precious and valuable advices to shape the career of the participants.

The distinguished guest speaker was Dr. Jeewika Ranaweera, Principal Hardware Engineer of Oracle, San Jose, USA. There was another session on leadership and that was conducted by Mr. Nirmal Kumarasiri, Director-Operations at CakeLabs. The participation was about 50 students from universities in all over the country. This event was mainly focused on advising and giving instructions for the females who will be going to the industry in order to form their future career. Actually, speakers were able to uplift the motivation of the females who are willing to engage with IT industry. They basically discussed how to move with the industry people as females, how we should face to the challenges and ways of identifying strengths and weaknesses through their life experiences. Especially, we were given instructions how to manage and how to balance the professional life and personal life since the audience was females. They conducted their speeches with interesting stories.

It is sure, that the talk generated courage, motivation and lifetime experience to the participants. It actually got a tremendous success and the success was determined by the people who joined hands with the event such as guest speakers, audience, sponsors and all other people who have contributed us. 

Article By: Pramodya Weerakoon

Annual General Meeting of IEEE WIE UCSC Student Branch

The Annual General Meeting of IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) was successfully held on 6^th of March 2017 at the university premises from 8.00 a.m. onwards. The gathering was warmly welcomed by Nuwini Dulanga. Thereafter, the annual report for the year 2016 was presented to the gathering by Nimasha Jayathunga on behalf of the former secretary. Then, new executive board of the society for the coming year was appointed.

  

Firstly, Chanduni Wickremasinghe was appointed as the president of IEEE WIE Student Branch. Then, Navoda Pumudinee Kumarasiri was appointed as the vice president. Thereafter Nuwini Dulanga was appointed as the secretary while Ruwanmalee Dissanayake was appointed as the treasurer. Then batch representatives of the society were elected. Mishari Tamara and Gothami Karunarathna were appointed as third year batch representatives. Next, Oshani Weerakoon and Nishadi Thilakarathne were appointed as second year batch representatives for the society.

After finishing the announcement of the new office bearers for the year 2017, Mr. G P Seneviratne addressed the gathering, highlighting main facts. Future improvements, future expectations and other important facts that should be changed, were clearly explained by him to the members. And also, he explained about the satisfaction he got from the society and its activities throughout the past few years. The newly appointed committee members were acknowledged by the society members for their outstanding commitment and valuable activities they have done for the success of the society. Also they invited all members to actively participate in future activities as they have done before. Lastly, all enjoyed the refreshment arranged by the club members after the gathering.

Article By: Sanjani Gunathilaka

IEEE DAY 2015: Leveraging Technology for a better tomorrow

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Robert A. Heinlein once stated, “One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word”. And then arrived a moment of celebration for the so called Magicians resembling the gathering of the engineers worldwide and IEEE members first time in history to share their technical ideas in 1884, ‘IEEE Day for year 2015’, which was proudly presented by the IEEE Student Branch of UCSC (University of Colombo School of Computing) with its commencement from 10am on 7^th October at the New Arts Theatre of University of Colombo.

This special event was attended by the director of UCSC (University of Colombo School of Computing), Professor Gihan Nilendra Wikramanayake (FBCS, CITP, SMIEEE, MCS, and MNASSL), former director of UCSC, Dr. A. R. Weerasinghe, Guest Speakers for the day, Senior Lecturers of UCSC and as well as undergraduates of UCSC and other Universities invited.

           

As usual, lighting of the traditional oil lamp took place to initiate the day and a cake was cut to symbolize the main objective of the day, celebration of IEEE Day.

IEEE Day 2015 by UCSC was different from other because it was similar to a platform running so many applications that educated, updated and also indulging the audience with enthusiasm craving sessions.

Whilst “Leveraging Technology for a better tomorrow” being the theme for the year 2015, tech talk sessions were conducted by Mr.Sampath Thilakakumara (Software Architect at MIT), Dr. A. R. Weerasinghe (Senior Lecturer at UCSC) and Mr.Imesh Gunaratne (Senior Technical Lead in the Cloud Technologies team at WSO2) on the topics based on Software Engineers for future, Developments related to AI (Artificial Intelligence),about many inventions that are being introduced recently such as 3D printers, Agile Robots, car to car communication and Agricultural Drones. And also special attention was given to acknowledge and update the audience with the latest trends discussed frequently; IOT(Internet of things),Context Rich systems, Cloud computing, Web-scale IT, Project Loon, Open Source culture,etc.

            Guests experienced an epic ‘Ice breaking’ session which was literary a competition to break ice! And the iconic ‘Treasure Hunt’ event was another competition that took this celebration to a different level of a technological extravaganza where the participants had to locate codes at different geographical locations! And the definite and inevitable ‘selfie’ competition took place without much hesitation forming an awaken mode for the guests. Files and Laptop stickers were provided as a token of appreciation for the participation in the event.

           

The support of Elephant House (Ceylon Cold Stores PLC) and Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC shall be appreciated for being the sponsors of the day. Especial gratitude shall be expressed for all who were paving the path by being great guidance and extremely co-operative to mark an end for a remarkable and an exceptional IEEE Day celebration!

Madhuka De Silva

Motivational Speech Session Held In A Grand Scale

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Showing the unlimited capacity of successive lecturers and the class and grandeur of undergraduates possess, The Motivational Speech Session 2015 of University of Colombo School of Computing, organized by the IEEE Women In Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group of UCSC was held on the 27^th of August 2015 at the Mini Auditorium in a spectacular manner. The event took place from 2.00 p.m. onwards. The theme of this year’s session was “She believed she could, so she did”.

Dr.(Mrs.) Shiromi M.K.D.Arunathilake,Dr.(Mrs.)Yamaya Ekanayaka and Dr.(Mrs.)Chalani Oruthotaarachchi graced the occasion as the guest speakers. Many items such as motivational speeches and motivational videos were presented. The most outstanding feature was that all the guest speakers were lecturers of the UCSC. The participation of many undergraduates from 1^st and 2^nd years’ about 100 were seen. Undergraduates namely Tharushi Perera, Dhanushka Umayangani, Asha Madushani and Fathima Humairah won prizes from the Q & A session.

Abolishing the age-old tradition of male dominance, this session introduced the concept of how high the ladies can reach midst different challenges. The valuable speeches held on success stories of female lecturers took much attention of the audience. Most importantly undergraduates achieved a true and in-depth understanding and appreciation of the power of young ladies as represented by the interesting stories.

In that light, it is safe to say that the participants of this session had a lesson of a lifetime! The session was conducted with the intention of uplifting the life status of ladies, manifested the organizing ability of undergraduates truly initiating the dawn of a new era. It was the first time that IEEE WIE of UCSC had ever staged an event.

It was in fact, a total success. However, the success of the event was determined by those in audience, honored lecturers and fellow colleagues. It was their presence that truly valued.

Nuwini Dulanga

GENERAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Seminar Held Successfully

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Showing the unlimited capacity of women undergraduates of the University of Colombo School of Computing ,The General Information Technology(GIT) seminar for the A/L students of Anula Vidyalaya , Nugegoda  , organized by the IEEE Women In Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group of UCSC was held on the 18^th of  September 2015 at the Anula Vidyalaya auditorium in a spectacular manner. The seminar took place from 9.00 a.m. onwards.

IT teachers of the school and about 150 students participated for the seminar. Many items such as presentations and interacting sessions were organized. The most outstanding feature was that all the students were gaining maximum benefit from the seminar. The participation of many undergraduates from all the batches of the UCSC gave an immense support to conduct the seminar by helping students of Anula Vidyalaya paying individual attention.

Abolishing the age-old tradition of conventional class room, this seminar introduced the concept of how to achieve the maximum from the interactions among peers. The model paper given was discussed with more theory knowledge. Most importantly students achieved a true and in-depth understanding about the subject which we got to know about through their feed backs.

In that light, it is safe to say that the participants of this seminar had a great experience with us! The seminar was conducted with the intention of uplifting the IT knowledge of ladies, manifested the organizing ability of undergraduates truly initiating the dawn of a new era. It was the first time that IEEE WIE of UCSC had ever organized a seminar for a school.

It was in fact, a total success. However, the success of the event was determined by those in audience. It was their presence that truly valued.

Nuwini Dulanga