MEDIA RELEASE

Wednesday 20 September 2017 – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Nearly 1,000 people took part in last week’s highly successful NITC/SEARCC Conference and preceding IFIP/SEARCC meetings in Colombo.

IFIP, the global federation of national computer societies, and SEARCC, its SE Asian regional counterpart, both held annual general meetings for their key executives and decision-makers in the lead-up to the Computer Society of Sri Lanka’s (CSSL) National IT Conference (NITC), which was held in cooperation with the SEARCC Conference.

The six-day event attracted 100 international delegates from almost 50 different countries around the world, including 20 overseas speakers who shared their knowledge and experience in different ICT-related disciplines.

Keynote speaker and SEARCC President, Professor Nick Tate discussed valuable strategies to help CIOs successfully navigate today’s highly complex and challenging environment, while entrepreneur Mark Lloyd highlighted the vital role commercial lighting is starting to play as an emerging network and integrated application platform.

CSSL President, Yasas V. Abeywickrama said the multi-faceted event also included an academic stream and a two-day programming competition involving 25 high school students from around the world, in which a Taiwanese team emerged victorious.

The diversity of activities and large number of international guests and participants made this the largest international ICT event ever staged in Sri Lanka,” he said.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we are pleased to have provided an opportunity for local businesses and government agencies to tap into the knowledge and expertise of our international speakers and delegates, and create opportunities for future collaboration.”

A highlight of the event was the CSSL ICT Awards, which were presented in the following categories to:

CSSL ICT Student award –School category –  Pasindu Chathuranga Wijesena

The CSSL ICT Student award-Undergraduate category – Keet Malin Sugathadasa

CSSL ICT Researcher of the year – Dr. Lakshman Jayarathna

CSSL Emerging ICT leader of the year – Mohamed Shehan

The Best start-up of the year – LIVEROOM

CSSL CIO of the year – Udana Wickramasinghe

CSSL ICT Leader of the year – Dulith Herath

SEARCC International Awards 2017 were also presented during this event and winners were:

ICT professional of the year – Professor Gihan Dias (Sri Lanka)

ICT researcher of the year –  Professor Han-Chieh Chao (Peoples republic of China)

ICT Educator of the year – Dr. Siddhartha Bhattacharyya (India)