Fall 2012
Content
Sl2college Quarterly News Update Volume 1 Issue 13 Fall 2012 BRAIN GAIN PORTAL LAUNCH
The Brain Gain team has been hard at work during December, finalizing the site layout and content. The original team of Kanchana Ambagahawita, Kirthevasan Kandasamy, Chamil Hathurusinghe, Nadeesha Nanayakkara and Nayana Samaranayake have been joined by Sanjiva Weerawarna, Harindu Alwis, Pamod Sylvester, Praveena Sarathchandra and Madhura Mendis, adding much needed expertise on developing the site and creating a marketing plan. The initial launch will focus on providing information to potential returnees on topics ranging from career opportunities, housing, education for children, legal and tax implications to name a few. The team is on target to launch phase one of the
News Letter
project by the end of January. Phase two will involve building partnerships with industry and connecting potential returnees directly with companies in Sri Lanka. The team plans on working closely with industry and government bodies to promote the portal and contribute towards human capital development in Sri Lanka. The team can be reached at [email protected] and would love to hear from others on how this service can be improved.
ADMIN RETREAT & ANNUAL TEAM GET-TOGETHER
Administrative team members had a retreat at the SL2College office in Dehiwala on December 29th. Team members who were not in Sri Lanka joined online. Future directions of SL2College, management, scope and targets of all program and support areas were discussed. The forum, seminars, mentor program, articles, and the brain gain project were identified as core program areas and will be the focus of SL2College activities. Support areas such as fund raising activities, marketing (including exhibitions), volunteer team building, web development and maintenance, and research on higher education in Sri Lanka, will be the “pillars” needed to execute the core areas successfully. Each program and support area is led by an Admin member, and a team of Project Managers and Assistant Project Managers. The team get-together was held on 2nd January at the Flower Drum restaurant in Colombo. We had 36 team members joining the event. Nayana Samaranayake gave an overview of SL2College. This was followed by short presentations of updates and achievements in 2012 from all the program and support areas by the respective Admins and Project Managers. Nayana thanked everyone for their consistent effort and volunteering towards this great cause. Plans for 2013 were also mentioned and the event ended with dinner.
TEAM PROMOTIONS AND OTHER CHANGES
SL2College welcomes three new administrative directors - Shanie Liyanagamage, Lakmal Padmakumara, and Dilini Warnakulasuriyarachchi. Shanie will be leading Articles & Resources, Lakmal will be in charge of Marketing and the Sri Lanka Education Forum (SLEF), while Dilini will be leading Seminars. There have also been changes in other program areas - Surangi Perera has been promoted to the position of Editor-in-Chief and will be coordinating our weekly articles in the Sunday Observer. Rashmika Nawarathne is the new Project Manager for SLEF. Thiran Sellehewa, Country Coordinator for Sri Lanka, will be leading the volunteer building task force, while Theekshana Ratnasekera will be focusing on marketing for seminars. More information on all team members can be viewed from their profiles on the website.
Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org or send us your suggestions & comments at [email protected]
Sl2college Quarterly News Update Volume 1 Issue 13 Fall 2012 ADYAPANA 2012
Adyapana was held from October 5-7, 2012, at BMICH. SL2College maintained a stall with the help of our members in Sri Lanka and several volunteers. Even though the overall turnout for the event was relatively low, there were approximately 500 visitors to our stall.
News Letter
SEMINAR FOR POST A/L STUDENTS ON CAREER AND HIGHER EDUCATION OPTIONS
SL2College organized a seminar for post A/L students to guide them on available career and higher education options. The seminar was held with the collaboration of EDEX, the largest career and educational exhibition in Sri Lanka. Prof. Rahula Attalage, Deputy Vice Chancellor UoM, Mrs. Vishaka Nanayakkara, former HoD Computer Science & Eng. Dept. UoM, Mr. Dusty Alahakoon, COO Asia Pacific Brewery, and Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarna, CEO WSO2 were the speakers. They spoke on Engineering, Information Technology, Business and Marketing, and Work/Life balance respectively. The audience consisted of approximately 35 students and few parents. The seminar was live streamed through the SL2College website as well as through the Dharmavahini TV website. Education Times was the media sponsor for the event.
WEBINAR ON GRADUATE SCHOOL APPLICATIONS FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS
SL2College hosted a Google Hangout session on November 25, 2012, on “Graduate Application Process for Students in Computer Science.” This virtual presentation of nearly 1.5 hours was viewed live by over 160 viewers spread globally, with approximately 120 of them logging in from Sri Lanka. Viewers also joined from other Asian countries, North America, and Europe. The four panelists included Dr. Tony Sahama (Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia), Primal Wijesekera, M.S. (alumnus, University of British Columbia, Canada), Eran Chinthaka Withana, Ph.D. (alumnus, Indiana University, U.S.A.), and Girisha de Silva (Ph.D. student, National University of Singapore). The event was moderated by Primal. They shared information about strategies in assembling a successful graduate college application, locating funding sources, and identifying research topics and research advisors. Special emphasis was placed on graduate studies in Computer Science, and differences in the educational systems in the countries they represented was given. The session closed with a Question & Answer segment based on viewer questions submitted online at the SL2College website. The video is now available on the SL2College YouTube channel and on our website: http://www.sl2college.org/seminar.
Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org or send us your suggestions & comments at [email protected]
Sl2college Quarterly News Update Volume 1 Issue 13 Fall 2012 SINHALA & TAMIL ARTICLES
The first Tamil article was published in the Weekly Thinakaran on 9th December. SL2College will be publishing articles on a monthly basis in this publication. Sumanaruban Rajadurai, Mohamed Rushdi, and Joseph Antony Jude have been working consistently on the translations. Great work by Tilan Wijesooriya has paved the way for us to publish Sinhala articles in Navaliya and Vidusara, popular journals published by Upali Newspapers (pvt) Ltd. Vidusara publishes Science & Technology related articles, while Navaliya publishes non-Science & Technology articles. The first article published in Navaliya on 19th November, 2012, was based on an interview done with Tilan, Lakmal
News Letter
and Amila about SL2College. More articles were published in Navaliya on 10th, 24th and 31st December 2012. In the meantime, Vidusara ran an advertisement in three consecutive weeks in December to make students aware of SL2College articles, and the 1st article was published on 2nd January, 2013. At present, Avanthi Wijesooriya and Navaka Navaratne have been doing a remarkable job in composing Sinhala articles for both Vidusara and Navaliya. Tilan will be managing the Sinhala article pipeline with help from Rashmika and the SLEF team who will provide inspirational stories and articles of information on higher education avenues in Sri Lanka. We are looking to expand the Sinhala and Tamil editorial teams - please email Shanie Liyanagamage at [email protected], if you’d like to join. We are working on publishing these articles on our website too. This initiative will help us reach a larger audience, including students in rural areas in Sri Lanka. It will increase awareness of higher education opportunities in Sri Lanka and overseas.
MEET A TEAM MEMBER - PRIMAL WIJESEKERA
Primal Wijesekera joined SL2College in late 2009 to help out with writing articles on the graduate application process in Canada. He went to St. Sebastian’s College in Moratuwa before going to the University of Colombo to pursue a B.Sc. in Computer Science. He recently completed a M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He now works as a Systems Engineer, specializing in data storage and systems scalability, at a local tech company. At SL2C, he has been involved with conducting and participating in over a dozen live online seminars. He participated in the first live SL2C seminar in Oct 2010. He also helped to start off the Canada team of SL2C in 2009. He now manages the internal mailing group of the Canada team and the Facebook group targeting grad applicants to Canadian universities. He has also acted as a mentor in the SL2C mentoring program since 2010.
He wanted to join SL2C because he thought he could help a broader audience by doing so. He finds it amazing how SL2C grew from being a small yahoo email group into a global volunteer movement. He can see us becoming a central hub for all matters affecting Sri Lankan graduate students. The foremost obstacle students need to overcome while applying to graduate schools is the lack of awareness on the most basic things such as selecting good schools to apply to, how to reach faculty abroad, etc. When asked what he is most excited about at SL2C, he thinks programs such as Brain Gain can be used to promote internship opportunities in Sri Lanka. Using us as a global platform, Sri Lankan graduates abroad can utilize their knowledge and experience to help Sri Lanka effectively. Primal added that “It is touching to see how students across the world work tirelessly together for one objective - to at least help one more student to reach his or her dream of getting a good higher education.”
Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org or send us your suggestions & comments at [email protected]
The Brain Gain team has been hard at work during December, finalizing the site layout and content. The original team of Kanchana Ambagahawita, Kirthevasan Kandasamy, Chamil Hathurusinghe, Nadeesha Nanayakkara and Nayana Samaranayake have been joined by Sanjiva Weerawarna, Harindu Alwis, Pamod Sylvester, Praveena Sarathchandra and Madhura Mendis, adding much needed expertise on developing the site and creating a marketing plan. The initial launch will focus on providing information to potential returnees on topics ranging from career opportunities, housing, education for children, legal and tax implications to name a few. The team is on target to launch phase one of the
News Letter
project by the end of January. Phase two will involve building partnerships with industry and connecting potential returnees directly with companies in Sri Lanka. The team plans on working closely with industry and government bodies to promote the portal and contribute towards human capital development in Sri Lanka. The team can be reached at [email protected] and would love to hear from others on how this service can be improved.
ADMIN RETREAT & ANNUAL TEAM GET-TOGETHER
Administrative team members had a retreat at the SL2College office in Dehiwala on December 29th. Team members who were not in Sri Lanka joined online. Future directions of SL2College, management, scope and targets of all program and support areas were discussed. The forum, seminars, mentor program, articles, and the brain gain project were identified as core program areas and will be the focus of SL2College activities. Support areas such as fund raising activities, marketing (including exhibitions), volunteer team building, web development and maintenance, and research on higher education in Sri Lanka, will be the “pillars” needed to execute the core areas successfully. Each program and support area is led by an Admin member, and a team of Project Managers and Assistant Project Managers. The team get-together was held on 2nd January at the Flower Drum restaurant in Colombo. We had 36 team members joining the event. Nayana Samaranayake gave an overview of SL2College. This was followed by short presentations of updates and achievements in 2012 from all the program and support areas by the respective Admins and Project Managers. Nayana thanked everyone for their consistent effort and volunteering towards this great cause. Plans for 2013 were also mentioned and the event ended with dinner.
TEAM PROMOTIONS AND OTHER CHANGES
SL2College welcomes three new administrative directors - Shanie Liyanagamage, Lakmal Padmakumara, and Dilini Warnakulasuriyarachchi. Shanie will be leading Articles & Resources, Lakmal will be in charge of Marketing and the Sri Lanka Education Forum (SLEF), while Dilini will be leading Seminars. There have also been changes in other program areas - Surangi Perera has been promoted to the position of Editor-in-Chief and will be coordinating our weekly articles in the Sunday Observer. Rashmika Nawarathne is the new Project Manager for SLEF. Thiran Sellehewa, Country Coordinator for Sri Lanka, will be leading the volunteer building task force, while Theekshana Ratnasekera will be focusing on marketing for seminars. More information on all team members can be viewed from their profiles on the website.
Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org or send us your suggestions & comments at [email protected]
Sl2college Quarterly News Update Volume 1 Issue 13 Fall 2012 ADYAPANA 2012
Adyapana was held from October 5-7, 2012, at BMICH. SL2College maintained a stall with the help of our members in Sri Lanka and several volunteers. Even though the overall turnout for the event was relatively low, there were approximately 500 visitors to our stall.
News Letter
SEMINAR FOR POST A/L STUDENTS ON CAREER AND HIGHER EDUCATION OPTIONS
SL2College organized a seminar for post A/L students to guide them on available career and higher education options. The seminar was held with the collaboration of EDEX, the largest career and educational exhibition in Sri Lanka. Prof. Rahula Attalage, Deputy Vice Chancellor UoM, Mrs. Vishaka Nanayakkara, former HoD Computer Science & Eng. Dept. UoM, Mr. Dusty Alahakoon, COO Asia Pacific Brewery, and Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarna, CEO WSO2 were the speakers. They spoke on Engineering, Information Technology, Business and Marketing, and Work/Life balance respectively. The audience consisted of approximately 35 students and few parents. The seminar was live streamed through the SL2College website as well as through the Dharmavahini TV website. Education Times was the media sponsor for the event.
WEBINAR ON GRADUATE SCHOOL APPLICATIONS FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS
SL2College hosted a Google Hangout session on November 25, 2012, on “Graduate Application Process for Students in Computer Science.” This virtual presentation of nearly 1.5 hours was viewed live by over 160 viewers spread globally, with approximately 120 of them logging in from Sri Lanka. Viewers also joined from other Asian countries, North America, and Europe. The four panelists included Dr. Tony Sahama (Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia), Primal Wijesekera, M.S. (alumnus, University of British Columbia, Canada), Eran Chinthaka Withana, Ph.D. (alumnus, Indiana University, U.S.A.), and Girisha de Silva (Ph.D. student, National University of Singapore). The event was moderated by Primal. They shared information about strategies in assembling a successful graduate college application, locating funding sources, and identifying research topics and research advisors. Special emphasis was placed on graduate studies in Computer Science, and differences in the educational systems in the countries they represented was given. The session closed with a Question & Answer segment based on viewer questions submitted online at the SL2College website. The video is now available on the SL2College YouTube channel and on our website: http://www.sl2college.org/seminar.
Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org or send us your suggestions & comments at [email protected]
Sl2college Quarterly News Update Volume 1 Issue 13 Fall 2012 SINHALA & TAMIL ARTICLES
The first Tamil article was published in the Weekly Thinakaran on 9th December. SL2College will be publishing articles on a monthly basis in this publication. Sumanaruban Rajadurai, Mohamed Rushdi, and Joseph Antony Jude have been working consistently on the translations. Great work by Tilan Wijesooriya has paved the way for us to publish Sinhala articles in Navaliya and Vidusara, popular journals published by Upali Newspapers (pvt) Ltd. Vidusara publishes Science & Technology related articles, while Navaliya publishes non-Science & Technology articles. The first article published in Navaliya on 19th November, 2012, was based on an interview done with Tilan, Lakmal
News Letter
and Amila about SL2College. More articles were published in Navaliya on 10th, 24th and 31st December 2012. In the meantime, Vidusara ran an advertisement in three consecutive weeks in December to make students aware of SL2College articles, and the 1st article was published on 2nd January, 2013. At present, Avanthi Wijesooriya and Navaka Navaratne have been doing a remarkable job in composing Sinhala articles for both Vidusara and Navaliya. Tilan will be managing the Sinhala article pipeline with help from Rashmika and the SLEF team who will provide inspirational stories and articles of information on higher education avenues in Sri Lanka. We are looking to expand the Sinhala and Tamil editorial teams - please email Shanie Liyanagamage at [email protected], if you’d like to join. We are working on publishing these articles on our website too. This initiative will help us reach a larger audience, including students in rural areas in Sri Lanka. It will increase awareness of higher education opportunities in Sri Lanka and overseas.
MEET A TEAM MEMBER - PRIMAL WIJESEKERA
Primal Wijesekera joined SL2College in late 2009 to help out with writing articles on the graduate application process in Canada. He went to St. Sebastian’s College in Moratuwa before going to the University of Colombo to pursue a B.Sc. in Computer Science. He recently completed a M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He now works as a Systems Engineer, specializing in data storage and systems scalability, at a local tech company. At SL2C, he has been involved with conducting and participating in over a dozen live online seminars. He participated in the first live SL2C seminar in Oct 2010. He also helped to start off the Canada team of SL2C in 2009. He now manages the internal mailing group of the Canada team and the Facebook group targeting grad applicants to Canadian universities. He has also acted as a mentor in the SL2C mentoring program since 2010.
He wanted to join SL2C because he thought he could help a broader audience by doing so. He finds it amazing how SL2C grew from being a small yahoo email group into a global volunteer movement. He can see us becoming a central hub for all matters affecting Sri Lankan graduate students. The foremost obstacle students need to overcome while applying to graduate schools is the lack of awareness on the most basic things such as selecting good schools to apply to, how to reach faculty abroad, etc. When asked what he is most excited about at SL2C, he thinks programs such as Brain Gain can be used to promote internship opportunities in Sri Lanka. Using us as a global platform, Sri Lankan graduates abroad can utilize their knowledge and experience to help Sri Lanka effectively. Primal added that “It is touching to see how students across the world work tirelessly together for one objective - to at least help one more student to reach his or her dream of getting a good higher education.”
Please visit us on the web at www.sl2college.org or send us your suggestions & comments at [email protected]
